The sapphire snake
by Animapower
Summary: All in all, he should have been more surprised. But he had see such strange things: He was probably dead and in some kind of afterlife, hard to do stranger and his teacher was weirder. But Dust, Grimm and Aura still were somewhere in the top ten.
1. Under another broken moon

The being let out a gleeful laugh. A moment sooner and the occasion would never have happened, a moment later and it would have been lost. But it had happened in just this infinitesimal moment, the knife cutting through the tie and the heart at the exact same instant the beam had linked the earth and the night sky. And in this fraction of a second, the energy that the teacher's cell had produced until the very end had been released and entered in contact with the one bringing man's judgement from the very heaven. It had searched for such an occasion through an infinity of timelines, looking for the right conditions to be met.

The energetic potential for a Paradoxical Rift had appeared. Without losing any time, It opened the way; bringing the only one close enough to be transported to where he would create a new possibility.

The laugh strained. It could feel the insanity coming forth in its soul from the walls behind which It had sealed the creeping madness.

It had to be fast so It began to dream its gift for its new chosen. It took particularly great with the weapons, weapons he was already familiar with, that he could already use and that he would come to master. Plus some hidden surprises. When It was finished It sent it to the new owner.

Clenching its fangs to fight off insanity, It brought what It had dreamed alongside the gift up to its eye level, inspecting the little thing before sending it to where and when it would serve its purpose. Hopefully this man would understand.

It made sure its alter-ego would stop its rampage before It attained the plane of the real.

And with a grin, It let itself rest. Indulging in the creeping madness.

* * *

Nagisa steered awake with the strange feeling that he should not be able to. So before opening his eyes, he tried to remember why. Why should he not be able to stir?

Then memories hit him with the strength of a truck, like one of those you could find in Yoshida's automobile magazine

* * *

 _They are all here, his classmates, blocking the escape way their teacher doesn't have anymore, Karasuma-sensei and B-no- Jelavic-sensei, standing setback, silent support for what's to come._

 _He raises the knife._

 _The last words of a great man._

 _"Indeed, this is goodbye."_

 _The knife begins its way down._

 _"Congratulation on graduating."_

 _The blade reaches its target and the sky fall._

* * *

He opened his eyes.

Ah, so he was really dead. How else could there be so much moon in the night sky? For even if this moon was shattered, there was still more than what was left after Yanagisawa's mouse had died. Strangely enough, it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. The mere presence of an afterlife meant that he could still follow the path he had chosen. And maybe, if he pursued his way, then he would meet his class again when they would pass away. The only true regret he held was not having kept his promise to his mother.

He stayed like this for a few more seconds, musing on how fitting it was for him to wake up under another broken moon, before calmly rising to his feet, noticing that he felt much lighter. It was not that surprising, he was dead after all. What was, though, was not the fact he was in a city, dead people had to live somewhere, but the box standing proudly before him with a letter to his name on top.

 _Dear Nagisa, you don't know me but I know you._

 _This, is my gift for you, and you alone. It has be dreamed with you in mind._

 _The chip is for your phone._

 _While hoping we will one day meet in person,_

 _The Ancient One_

 _P.S. I hope you will like the liberties I took with your apparel._

Looking down, he noted that his outfit had indeed changed. The black sleeves and legs were now adorned with wisps of royal blue, the same color going in flaming motif on the fingers of his gloves and the base of his boots. The gray parts had become turquoise with, ironically, a night blue crescent moon adorning his heart's emplacement. The buttons and lace had turned to marine blue and the 'E' on the collar, previously white, was now of gold outlined in black.

Fitting, a tribute to both his class and the so peculiar teacher with whom they had lived the year like some kind of true dysfunctional family.

He pressed the small button serving as a lock for the box and it gently opened, offering its content to his view.

The first thing he saw was a change for his attire, his attention lingered on the coiling snake adorning the back.

Alongside it rested four glistening knives, shaped like the ones he had used against Takaoka. They seemed carved in sapphire, adorned by a snake of emerald with eyes of ruby. Taking one in hand, he noted that it fitted exactly in his grip, be it in a reversal one or a normal one.

Under the knives, he found an assault gun like the one he wielded in the class battle and a pistol, adorned just like the blades. On closer inspection, he detected some differences, like the size of the barrels. Opening the chargers he found it full with some kind of cristal bullets. Strange but after all, why not?

What he liked the most, though, were the taser and stun-baton, made in the same way as the rest.

Slowly, he strapped a knife to each leg, placing the two other blades horizontally on his low back. He placed the gun just above, across his back, where it would be easy to take and the pistol in a holster inside his jacket. The stun-baton found its place in a sheath at the left of his hip and the taser in one of his chest-pocket. He must have looked ready for war.

He let out a pleased sigh. It was silly, but the weight of his new arsenal, even if it was strangely light, appeased him; like a promise that all would be alright.

Before continuing to look in the box he took the time to think about the emblem adorning his new possessions: a snake. The class had compared him to one from time to time: small yet deadly, overlooked until it bit you and it already is too late. Always ready to ensnare you in its coil or to sink its fangs into your neck.

A snake, huh? Yeah, he liked it.

The only remaining items in the chest were some kind of map, a scaled leather pouch and the chip mentioned in the letter inside a small glass box.

He took the chip and, delicately opening his phone, placed it in the little device. As soon as he closed it, it began to change in a small blue slab of metal with a sapphire in the center. When he touched the sapphire, it opened to reveal a screen displaying proudly 'download complete at 2%'. Realizing he had some time before anything new would come from it, he put it away in his pocket.

He put the map on the side and choose to examine the pouch. The chest began to shrink as soon as it got out before being gently sucked in the little bag.

Something told him he should have been surprised. But he had seen such strange things... Heck, he was dead and in the afterlife, hard to do stranger and his teacher was weirder. He mused on how unusual his life was for a bag of holding to not even be in his top fifty most outlandish things he ever saw.

* * *

As it happened, the map led to a shop, 'From dust till dawn'. And this shop just had to be robbed when he was inside. Yeah, nothing new under the sky. But let's get back a little.

* * *

Nagisa opened the door to be greeted by the gentle face of an elderly clerk.

"Good evening. Can I help you?" said the man... In English...

"Ah, yes! I'm a little lost you see." he replied with a slight accent, suddenly really happy for his best subject to be English.

"Now, what would you like to know?"

He noticed the same kind of crystals from his firearms' chargers.

"Could you please tell me what those crystals are?"

The clerk's eyes widened.

"You don't know what Dust is?! But my boy, this is the very resource upon which Remnant is built. Go look at the back, I have a book that will explain it better than me. Its name is 'From dust to Dust'. As long as you stay here you can freely read it all you want." Remnant? A fitting name for the Afterlife.

"Thank you, sir."

He started his way to the back, paying little mind to the five men entering. At first view, the man in white must have been a rich man coming for a late purchase with his bodyguards.

Passing a girl in red he began to search through the book section, listening absentmindedly to the girl's music, until the sound of a blade you unsheathe interrupted him. He let out a long suffering sigh, so much for his hypothesis.

"Hey kids, put your hands where I can see it!"

His hands stayed where they were, this man was a complete amateur. His grip was too tight on the handle and his posture had more hole than he could count. He was definitely not a threat.

Still, he took the poor guy in pity and lightly tapped the girl's shoulder so that she would at least take her headphone off.

"Yes?"

"This man asked us to raise our hands."

"Hey brats! Do you two have a dead-wish or something?"

Nagisa lightly chuckled. This man? Kill them? Taking into account that he was a trained assassin and that the girl stood like an experimented fighter... Yeah, good luck with that. He promptly made his thought know.

"You? Kill us? And yet you don't look as if you've ever killed anybody before." He smiled as he remembered the first time he told this. Maybe he had hanged a little too much with Karma.

The girl sent him an interested look. The man, though, glued his eyes on him with what he guessed was doubt.

"Sh-shut up! Put your hands in the air now." His grip on the short sword tightened even more.

"Are you... Robbing us?" she sounded really amused.

"YES!"

"Ah..." It was the only warning he got before she sent him flying with some kind of red contraption.

"Hello, name's Ruby!" she smiled.

"My name is Nagisa. It's nice to meet you."

As if on cue, another thug, because he could only be a thug, came running before pointing them with his pistol. While he was not the shooter expert in the class, this place going to both Hayami and Chiba, his training let him know that the man had absolutely no idea on how to use his weapon.

He brought his right hand to one of the blades on his back's handle, but Ruby beat him to the punch. Well, to the drop kick to be precise, going as far as passing through the window with her feet firmly planted on the thug's chest.

Taking the time to reassure the kind seller, he joined them out just in time to see Ruby cut a man with the bladed side of the scythe, that must have been the contraption from earlier, without shedding any blood. So you could survive this kind of things in the afterlife. Only to a certain extent, if the small gashes on the man that had gone through the window meant anything, but still. Truly a good new for him, it meant that he would not have to subdue them one by one to not kill them. As soon as the thought hit home, he masked his bloodlust and began to run toward a group of five new thugs coming to their companions' rescue. Marveling at how faster he was here, he grabbed his gun and sent them all to sleep, cutting two of them and shooting the others. All without shedding any blood.

A slow clapping made him raise his head toward the man in white standing in the store's doorway.

"And to think I have already paid for them." The man cleared his throat. "Well, Red, Blue, while you two are truly interesting, that we all had an eventful evening and that I'd love to stick around..." He pointed his cane at them and all sorts of alarms, sounding suspiciously like Koro-sensei, rang in Nagisa's head; the trigger on it was proof enough that the cane was dangerous.

"This is where we part way." The shot was more akin to an explosion and forced them to leap out of the way. But while Ruby let their enemy out of her view, Nagisa was already pursuing him. An escaped target was a hazard for any and all involved with the assassin, he had learned his lesson with Takaoka and the second God of Death. This man would go into a cell or he would cause too much damage.

The target was just finishing to climb a ladder to a nearby building's rooftop so he sprinted toward the construction and jumped between it and the one next to it, rapidly making his way to the top, all the while enjoying how high his new lightness combined with his gym boots let him go in only one jump.

He silently landed on the roof, before following the target in Nanba.

All his effort for discretion were utterly crushed when Ruby joined them and _called out_ _the enemy_. So she was not an assassin. Probably the equivalent of some kind of martial artist.

"Persistent brats."

As if on cue, some kind of aircraft aligned itself with their level to let the bad guy enter. If Nagisa had not already lived through something like this, he would have thought himself in a movie.

"End of the line kids!" shouted the man before throwing some kind of red crystal at them and taking aim. He immediately understood what the red jewel was, the class had used the exact same tactic from time to time: an explosive.

The assassin launched in his fastest run, snatched the bomb in flight and threw it back in the shot's trajectory. It exploded before he could touch the ground again and he was thrown on the roof's hard floor. A second shot resounded and he closed his eyes, readying himself for the pain.

The pain never came and when he opened his eyes again, it was to see a blond woman sending purple rays toward the aircraft. Okay, this was not the strangest thing he had ever seen, but it still managed to amaze him a little. The ensuing fight between her and some fire using woman, conveniently hidden in the shadow, was truly a sight to behold: the like of which he had only witnessed in the battle between Koro-sensei, Number Two and Yanagisawa.

He raised an eyebrow when Ruby's scythe transformed into a gun she used to shoot at the fire woman before taking back his rifle and joining the fray. While he was not the best shooter in class 3E, this place once more going to Chiba with Hayami as a close second, he still was seventh. Plus, the target was human sized, almost motionless and less than twenty meters away; anybody in the class could hit something like this, especially with a real gun.

Sadly, his history with superhuman being was to last because the fire woman simply stopped Ruby's bullets from one hand and raised some fire wall to block his strangely glowing ones.

He suddenly heard a whistle and, upon recognizing the light on the ground from the previous fight, he jumped back, feeling strangely pushed.

And obviously, the aircraft's pilot took the opportunity to flee. Nagisa sighed, he would have to find them again and... Get rid of the problem. He would have liked not having to kill them, but he made himself no illusion: these peoples were skilled and there was little likelihood of an ideal situation.

"You are a Huntress!" Ruby's shout brought his attention to the two other people with him on the roof.

"Can I have your autograph?!" The glare she got from the 'Huntress' woman told him an autograph was not what they would get tonight.

And to say it was only his first hour in the afterlife.

* * *

 **Red like roses bring me to the place you rest**

 **White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test**

 **Black the beast descend from shadows**

 **Yellow beauty burn gold**

 **Blue calmly walk with death in the eyes**

* * *

 _ **Finally, it his much harder to rewrite something than simply do it a first time believe me.**_

 _ **So, I searched for a way to not having Nagisa as a dead weight for the RWBY cast and I found it! Gravity is weaker on Remnant, you can observe it by the object's slower falls. As to why? Your answer is in the sky: the moon, still having the same general weight keep the same attraction's strength but the smaller chunks are attracted to the earth and cause a lower orbit to apply. So, Nagisa is lighter for the same physical strength making it so he run faster and jump higher. Much more.**_

 ** _For the ones who reviewed me to tell me I had accidentally suppressed this chapter with the next one: thanks to the first one, phoque you to the others, I already knew it._**

 ** _While hoping you liked it._**

 ** _Review! Follow! Favorite! Come back again! And have a good read._**


	2. Interrogation surprises

He let a sharp smile take place on his lips, as fake as everything he was, he had awakened in that place again: the place where he and the two others encountered. But this time he was alone, so It had probably descended into madness again, prompting the other to go stop It. And if It had devolved into its insanity, then it meant that a new possibility had arisen. He already knew which one.

"Him to this place hum? Oh my friend, you have always the most promising surprises."

"Humanity has forgotten that they are only a Remnant, a byproduct of long lost history, indeed. But this remnant holds such promise, such potential, that they can afford this little product of Pride don't you think? They prepare their guardians, their hunters, to fend off the darkness, who prey on them; you already sent your destroyers, your crusaders, to smother the light. We have brought our wild card: slithering in the shadows, basking in the light, to open a new path. Maybe, like he said, victory reside in a smaller, most honest soul, maybe not. But in any case, this soul will not be alone. For those who fend for what they believe in, those who partake in the same kindness, are never alone: they reach to each other from worlds and times apart, assembling against one enemy, for the dreams they each hold to their chest, in a huddle so close that their strength can shatter the mountains, that their belief can rend the sky asunder and that their name will inspire awe and respect in the hearts of the divine!"

The smile turned into something twisted, reaching a size betraying insanity.

"So, you who cannot hear my word, be ready for the storm, the play has yet to begin!"

The voice turned to a whisper.

"And it will be far less predictable than you seem to believe."

* * *

There were only few things Nagisa really disliked, he had long since learned to take his problems in stride. He had no problem with a suicide mission, he could be awakened at ungodly hours by a yellow perverted octopus teacher for 'bonding exercises' on the other side of the world without any problem and he even was more or less okay with all these cross-dressing stories. But being blocked in a dimly lit room with somebody pacing back and forth while silently assessing him had a way to put him on edge, memories of the second god of death's underground facility coming back to mind.

The woman finally spoke.

"I hope you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly young ladies."

His head went crashing against the iron table with a loud 'bang'.

"Even dead, even dead, they can't have it right." He whimpered. Don't misunderstand, he did not really dislike it, but it still hurt a little when peoples thought he was a girl when he was not in a dress.

"Is there a problem?" asked the woman, the huntress like Ruby had called her, sounding a little annoyed.

He rose his head.

"Erm, sorry for interrupting you, but I'm not a girl, I'm a guy."

The woman rose an eyebrow. Ruby visibly startled.

"Wait! You're a boy?!"

His forehead swiftly reacquainted itself with the cool metal. He made a point to ignore the blood that began to drip over the furniture. There had to be somebody laughing his lungs out somewhere. He had the vague feeling it was Karma.

"Yes." It came out a little more like a sob than he would have liked.

"Then you have my apologies but, as I was saying, you must understand that you have put yourselves and others in great danger. Especially you, young lady."

"They star-" Nagisa rapidly cut her off before she pushed them deeper.

"We stopped a robbery conducted by armed men, the civilians had already evacuated with the exception of the storekeeper who was the first objective secured. The only persons put in danger were Ruby and I. Of the dozen of enemies, only two escaped and, while there were some collateral damages, there were no casualties nor wounded. Even if the results are not optimal, I believe that the operation can be considered a success."

While Ruby tilted her head like some overly cute puppy, the huntress woman looked at him with an expression at midway between annoyed and appreciative.

"Even if I have some new questions for you, you are indeed correct: you admirably performed and I would have congratulated you if you were graduated huntsman and huntress. But you are not. And this is why, if it were up to me, both of you would be sent home with a pat on the back..."

He felt bad for the suddenly smiling Ruby: the 'but' was clearly there.

"And a slap on the wrist!"

He didn't even realize he had instinctively reached for the knife at his left leg before he was at midway in the act, and he realized he had blocked the riding crop only when the sound of metal against blade screeched in the room. He blinked. Ruby blinked. The huntress certainly did not blink.

"Go-gomen, watashi watakunakatta!" He blushed. "I-I mean! Sorry, I didn't want to, it was a reflex!"

He could have sworn he had seen little stars sparkling in Ruby's eyes. He was absolutely sure the huntress' calm was a godsend. He was a little less sure about the calculating look she sent him.

"More and more questions... Where was I? Ah, yes! There is someone here who would like to meet you."

Cue the entering of a gray haired man clad in shades of green holding a cup of what smelled like a freshly made coffee and a plate of cookies.

"Ruby Rose and Nagisa, surname unknown." The man leaned slightly on the table in Ruby's direction.

"You have silver eyes."Before she could come up with an answer he turned toward Nagisa.

"And you... Have blue pupils."

"What?" Nagisa took his mirror, the one he used for light signal from one of his pockets. True to the man's word, his eyes had changed, the iris had divided into two rings of different shades of blue and the pupils had turned to two slits of sapphire. The fact that the eyes had changed was not that surprising, he had already observed the slow change throughout the past year. What astounded him was that, last he remembered, the change did not look nearly as complete when he killed Koro-sensei and it was far slower than what would have been needed for them to finish.

"Well, miss Rose, we will begin by asking you where you learned to do this." The man made a sign of his head to where the woman was holding her pad. Pad who displayed Ruby fighting the thugs in black. So the fight was recorded. It certainly explained why she was here in time to save the day. Now that he looked closer, he could see some familiarity in the way she moved, some reminded him of the ones the class used after the fighting and free-running training.

"S-signal academy." An academy? Interesting, maybe he could find a university where his most 'peculiar' talents and skills could be of use. He made a note to search a little for it.

"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" Now he was exaggerating. Sure, Ruby's scythe/gun must need some skill, but he had seen weapons far more fearsome than it, all the bio weapons, tentacles and even some of Itona, Ritsu and Manami's joint projects came to mind. The thought of some of their results sent shivers down his spine, those who had been placed in the category 'Never talk about it again' had a way to make the class a little more trigger-happy than they already were, particularly the ones with which Karma had helped out.

"Well, one teacher in particular."

"I see." The man placed the plate of cookies on the table and Ruby began to happily tear through them. Nagisa took one of them and, more by habit than anything else, broke it in two before lightly sniffing one of the halves. Put at ease by the lack of poison traces he ate it, pointedly ignoring the interested look of the green man.

"It's just that I've only seen one scythe wielder of that skill before, a dusty old crow."

"fash mah hunkul!" Maybe the answer would have been easier to understand if she had emptied her mouth before, thing she promptly did.

"Sorry, that's my uncle Qrow, he's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing." The man and he lightly grinned at the fortuitous pun. "And now I'm all like-" Cue stereotypical kung-fu sounds and poses. His hands slowly found their way to his face. Before coming back bloodied, he had forgotten this small detail. He shot a grateful smile at the woman when she silently handed him a tissue.

"So I've noticed. And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

"Well, I want to be a Huntress." This word again.

"You want to slay monsters?" Wait what?

"Monsters? Excuse me, but what do you mean, monsters?" The others looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

"The creature of Grimm. What else?"

"Grimm?" He was sure this meant something like 'sinister' but he didn't remember anything called like that.

"We will have to talk about this more in a moment. But for your understanding, the Grimms are the creature of darkness oppressing humanity."

Monsters oppressing humanity, overpowered weapons and peoples talking about it like it was normal. It was not how he represented the afterlife.

"So, miss Rose, your answer?"

"Ah, yeah. I only have two more years of training left at Signal! Then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year and she's trying to be a huntress and I'm trying to be a huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help people soIthought'HeyImightaswelmakeacareeroutofit'ImeanthepolicearealrightbuttheHuntsmanandHuntressarejustsomuchmoreromanticandexcitingandreallygoshyouknow!"

So, he got some infos in there. One, Ruby was a sucker for interrogation. Two, she didn't need to breath between two sentences. Three, Huntress and Huntsman were apparently some kind of super protectors and four, he maybe had found a university where his previous experiences could help.

"Do you know who I am?"

"You're professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster of Beacon."

Nagisa tried, he really, really tried not laugh. He miserably failed, the afterlife was just as crazy as his class.

When he finally reduced the laughter to a small chuckle, he apologized and told them to continue.

"Hello." Simply said Ozpin

"Nice to meet you." Answered Ruby, he nearly started to laugh again.

"So you want to join my school?"

"More than anything."

"Well, okay." The headmaster turned to him.

"Now, Nagisa was it? May I ask for your full name?"

"Ah, yes. I'm Shiota Nagisa, it's nice to meet you mister Ozpin."

"No reference to color?"

"Hum, no sir. Why?"

"We will talk about this in a little moment. But before anything, I would like for you to explain me where you learned to do this." He gestured toward the clipboard where his actions of the evening were displayed.

"Kunigakoa Junior High Class 3E. I was a part of the class tasked to assassinate the creature that destroyed the living world's moon before he and I both died together."

"Died?!" The cry came from Ruby.

"Well, yeah. I only arrived three hours ago."

"But... But you..." She seemed at loss of words. Maybe she was born in the afterlife. But would that mean that you could still grow here?

"Miss Rose, if you would let me do this please. Mister Nagisa, what makes you believe that you are dead?"

"The fact that there is more remaining moon sir. And also the fact that I feel much lighter. The space beam must not have worked as the government said."

"Then I must tell you that you are very much alive my boy. But from what you told me, I would consider the theory of different worlds."

"Ozpin! You don't speak seriously? This theory still has no proof of its accuracy."

"Oh, but I am absolutely serious Glynda, this would explain much of what young Shiota here just told us. Now, my boy, could you please give us a proof of what you say?" The now named Glynda silently sent him a long-suffering look without saying anything. Ruby looked again like a lost puppy.

"Sure thing professor." He reached in his pocket for his phone, or whatever his phone had become.

"Oh? You already have a scroll?"

"This was my phone, but it changed when I arrived here." He blinked: on the screen, some chibi snake danced over the words 'Download complete, touch the screen to activate'. He did just that and a familiar figure appeared.

"Nagisa?"

"Ritsu! It's good to see you."

"Nagisa, what's happening?! I can't contact my central unit! Where are we? Who are these peoples? And-and why are we talking English?" He didn't know what to do, it was the first time he ever remembered having seen Ritsu panic. In a desperate try, he touched the screen where her matsukazé, her pressure point would be and, to his great surprise, she calmed like any blood and flesh people.

"Ritsu, I would like to introduce you to Ruby, professor Ozpin and miss..."

"Goodwitch"

"And miss Goodwitch."

"I pray you to accept my apologies. My name is autonomously thinking fixed artillery, but you can call me Ritsu."

Ozpin was the first one to react.

"There is no need for you to apologize, you were in a situation where your actions were perfectly justified. But I must say, I did not think it was possible to create a fully sentient artificial intelligence. You are an artificial intelligence?"

* * *

Somewhere in Atlas, a certain android suddenly learned she could sneeze.

* * *

"Yes, Professor Ozpin. I was created by the Norwegian army and upgraded by koro-sensei to become fully sentient. I recently began to feel emotions after a close interaction with the Japanese experimental manned spacecraft."

Ruby finally stopped doing her lost cute puppy impersonation and suddenly was at his side, making signs toward his pho-scroll as Ozpin had said.

"Hey! I'm Ruby. Did you say you went into space?!"

"Me, Nagisa and Karma actually. Why?"

Ruby didn't answer and looked at him as if he was the first person to ever do that.

"It is surprising." Ozpin's intervention gave him an excuse to look away. "Because as far as memory is concerned, space has been but a far dream for humanity. Now, do you think you could explain us about this?"

"Hey! Can I stay and listen too?" Nagisa turned to Ruby and sighed. He had the feeling that she would just wait for them outside the door if he was to say no.

"Okay, but it will probably take some time, even if I summarize."

"Take your time, we are not in a hurry." And, seeing the kind smile on the man's face, Nagisa decided he liked him.

"Ritsu, I will need your help. So, it all begin with my last year in middle school..."

* * *

Ruby was having one of the best evening she had had in a long time: she had met a Huntress, Ozpin, a cyber girl and a really cool guy. Sure, she had to fight some robbers and she had been reprimanded by the Huntress. But hey! Ozpin had said she could go to Beacon and Nagisa was telling a really fun story with Ritsu. She frequently caught herself daydreaming about the world he was talking about, about a super fast teacher, about cool assassins and travel into space.

She had to tell about all of this to Yang, her sister was gonna love it.

* * *

"And then I awakened here. You know the rest of the story." He had talked without pause for two hours without stopping except when somebody asked for a precision, mostly Ruby but Ozpin and Goodwitch had interrupted from time to time too. By the broken moon was he thirsty.

"Hey." He looked up from the bloodstain on the table to see Ozpin handing him a steaming cup of coffee he was pretty sure had not been there before.

"Thank you."

"Amazing! So you are some kind of ninja!" Ruby's enthusiast exclamation made him grin a little. She was holding his notebook with his teacher's weakness that he had lent them for proof.

"It's a way of seeing it."

"Now my boy, I know you must have enough of talking, but I have some question and maybe a proposition for you."

Nagisa refrained a chuckle.

"Ask away."

"How old did you say you are?"

"I would have turned sixteen in three months, sir."

"You said you just graduated before coming to Remnant is that right?"

"I completed both my mission and my studies yes."

"And you said you wished to be a teacher as well as find a way to use your training in a way to help people?"

Nagisa suddenly understood where this was going. His smile widened. "Yes, professor!"

"And you Ritsu, what would you want to do?"

"I would like to stay with my friend and help him at the best of my capacities. I would also like to learn more about this place."

"Then I would like to propose you to join Beacon. As a student, but also as a teacher."

A triple "What?" was his answer, Goodwitch looked ready to face-palm.

"Not as a full member of the staff of course, but I think your knowledge could be used in an optional class. What do you think about it?"

He thought about it: on one side, he already envisaged to try to join Beacon, the perspective of a university where he could put his skills in practice was really enticing. On the other, he was offered what was basically experience for both of his dreams. The answer was obvious.

"I certainly would like to try sir."

"Then this is decided. But before we go, there are two things we need to sort."

"Tell me."

"First of all, you must know that here, on Remnant, every child is called after a color, be it the color itself or some word that would remind of it. Taking your appearance into account, I would suggest something related to the color blue. Of course, you are not forced to fully change your name, simply adding a second one should be enough."

"Something related to blue..." He had no problem with changing his name, he had not used his surname in almost a year and he could always use his first name as a replacement.

Ruby raised her hand

"Why not Sapphire?" He turned toward her and she began to fidget uncomfortably. "I mean, your eyes make me think of jewels and..."

"Sapphire." He let the word roll on his tongue before smiling at her. "Then now I am Sapphire Nagisa. Thanks you Ruby."

"Hum, you're welcome?"

"Now, professor, you talked about two things to sort."

"Yes. Tell me Nagisa, have you ever heard of Aura?"

"I can't say I have. And you Ritsu?"

"No, sorry."

Ozpin smiled.

"Aura is a manifestation of the soul that Huntsman learn to control. It acts as some sort of empowering armor for the user and, when you become more familiar with it, it can manifest as a Semblance, a special power specific to every person."

"Do you think I have an aura sir?" Somehow, the amused look the headmaster sent him carried the answer.

"Aura is present in every living being with a soul. It is just a matter of awakening what is already there. Unless you lack a soul, I do believe you have aura."

"And you want to... Awaken my aura?"

"Certainly. Anybody who can use aura to a certain point is able to unlock someone's aura. Would you like for us to do it now?"

Nagisa, Sapphire now, kept silent for a moment. Then he sighed.

"What must I do?"

"Just close your eyes and concentrate." He did just that and he felt a hand touching his forehead. Then he stopped being human.

* * *

 _He raised his head from the comfortable scales of his long tail, looking at what disturbed the peace of his nest. He could overlook what had arrived here before because it stayed at the edge of his dominion, but this red light had come to the center of it. He silently crawled until his eyes were mere inches apart from the intruder. He let his tongue dart out of his mouth, the light smelled of freshly cut roses. Slowly, a hand formed from the light and extended toward him. Light began to fill his place, so dull before, revealing his infinite length. Then the Light began to sing, he heard the one on the border humming in reply. Slowly, ever so slowly, he approached the hand and hissed in tune with the wordless song. He touched the light with his snout and let them enter his domain_ _._

* * *

When he came back to being human, the first thing he saw was Ruby, looking at him with wide eyes, holding her hand in the air as if she had be touching his face. He suddenly realized she was the one with her hand on his forehead.

"A giant blue snake..." she muttered.

"Hum, are you alright?"

"Nagisa what is that?" Ritsu's voice brought his attention to his hands, his blue glowing hands. Reaching back for his mirror, he observed his skin, noticing the strange scaled pattern of the glow. The glow extended from his face where he could see it lengthen his two little fangs to his feet where he could see the end of some translucent thin reptilian tail.

"What"

"Hmm. This is not something you see everyday. Tell me, my boy, how do you feel?"

"I feel..." He searched for the right word. "I feel free sir, as if a great weight had been taken off my shoulders."

"Then it means that everything has worked as it should. My congratulation Sapphire, you too Ruby."

It seemed to bring the girl back from whatever reflections she was caught in."Thanks professor!"

"Then, now that everything is sorted, this is a pleasure for me to welcome both of you to Beacon. The transport will take off in two days at the central place. Until then, take care of you."

Ozpin and Goodwitch exited the room. Then something hit Nagisa like one of Takaoka-sensei's punch.

"Wait! I don't have a place to-" He heard them exit the building.

"-stay at..." His head got a third encounter with the metal table.

* * *

 **For this is in passing he achieve immortality**

 **Through this he become our champion of lights and shadow and rise above all**

 **Through infinite distance and beyond death**

 **We release his soul from its bounds**

 **And by our will guide him**

* * *

 _ **Hey I'm bac- stare at the story's stats, the story's stats stare back. Pass out from the surge of emotions.**_

 _ **Holly hell! 9 reviews, 65 followers, 57 favorites and 705 views when I post this! You guys, and girls are the absolute best. I never thought the prologue alone would have so much success.**_

 _ **So, back on track, I will answer to the reviews I can answer without spoiling too much.**_

 _ **ChemicalDragon74: I believe your question has been answered.**_

 _ **The others: Hope you're happy.**_

 _ **About this chapter:4000 words in two days for a scene of two minutes in the original show. And to think I will put original content too. Yeah, we're gonna be here for a long time.**_

 _ **The person talking at the beginning is one of the trinity, along with the being from previous chapter. They probably won't interact that much with the characters if at all so if you don't like OCs, don't panic.**_

 _ **I offer one special scene of their choice to the first person who would find what has been accepted in the dominion before I put the answer online.**_

 _ **Review, follow, favorite, come back again, come back again!**_

 _ **And put down the C4 I'm working as fast as I can.**_

 _ **Edit:Stop telling me I've replaced the prologue with this chapter! It should be back by tomorrow, just the time to write it again**_


	3. The Den

They held back a swore as It tore their arm off. The fight was too damn long, They had come as soon as It had fallen into insanity and They had seen both the sun and moon pass across the sky. The battle should not even have presented that much difficulty, It had had enough restraint to block its rampaging power to a point where It was not even mighty enough to destroy the ravine at the bottom of which the engagement took place, even less so the solar system, and yet It resisted enough to force Them to reforge most of their limbs several times.

They ducked under a claw, forging a sickle to cut off the offending appendage before, profiting of its temporary reduced reach, picking the broken tip of a spear They had discarded some hours earlier that they savagely jabbed into its left eye. At least both were evenly matched.

It roared in maddened fury and, in a burst of speed, impaled its scaled tail through their chest.

A ferocious grin spread on their metallic face, perfect, that finally was the opening They needed.

They altered their chest to block the limb and started to forge. Gleipnir, Loeding, Dromi, Enkidu, each and every bindings ever know to human and other that They had seen in their infinite existence. They fused them together to make something stronger than all of them put together. They compressed the result into a nail and, ignoring the claws and fangs assailing Them, buried the artifact into its chest.

The nail expended to bind It in chains as black as a moonless night before the bounds gushed forth towards the walls, finally restricting It enough so It would not destroy everything before gaining back its sanity.

They fell on the metal littered ground before letting out a shaky laugh. At least They could enjoy the play now.

* * *

As it turned out, finding a place to stay was not a problem: when Nagi- Sapphire had exited the room, he had come face to face with the store-owner who had apparently come to thank Ruby and him for saving his little commerce. The man had seemingly heard him about his lack of housing and had offered him to stay at his place until he left for Beacon. Which led him here, in a spare room behind the store.

"You know Ritsu, this is not how I pictured things would go when we started the operation." He looked through the window, eyes glued on the shattered moon.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed. "I thought that we would beat the soldiers, maybe get a little hurt, join Koro-sensei and find a way to save him. Yes, we beat the soldiers without anybody wounded and we joined Koro-sensei. But then Yanagisawa and Number Two came and everything's gone south: Kayano was hurt, Koro-sensei is dead, for all I know we are dead too and we're in another world." Yes, really not what he imagined.

"Nagisa..." She sounded almost hesitant.

"You know, my creators had planned to turn me off after we killed him."

"What?!"

She continued, as if not hearing him.

"And, at first, I was okay with it, I was just a machine created for the sake of slaying him, not even a true person. But then I came to the class, I was given free will and all of you treated me as if I was a real girl. I began to wish it could be true, that I could really be somebody. And all of you continued to go along with my wish as if it was normal. Then, when Kayano revealed her tentacles, you told us that you refused to believe that months of being friends were just a lie and I started to think that maybe I really was not just an object if all of you considered me as your friend. And after that we went in space and I really felt emotion, at that moment I knew I was happy I got the chance to be in the class, to meet all of you. And I decided to rebel against my end, I put a copy of myself on the internet to which I would transfer before they cut my main body off. I chose to dedicate my life to evolve alongside you all and help my precious friends."

He felt tears coming to his eyes.

"Ritsu..."

"So remember that you're not alone, I'm here and I will do all I can to help you."

He let out a little chuckle as a lone tear rolled on his cheek.

"You're right. And if I am here, then I will do my best to honor the name of Class 3E and our teachers. So, Ritsu, will you lend me your help?"

"Always."

* * *

 _He was here again, but there was no red light, in its place he found a translucent swirl of colors. It began to hum and he understood what it was: the other, the one he had granted access to at the same time as the light. He hissed in tune with it, slowly slithering around it, making his head oscillate to the pace of their song. When they finished, he lowered his eyes toward the volute._

 _"What do you want?"_

 _He paused at that, what did he want? He coiled around the swirl as he thought about the question. Yes, he knew what he wanted, he wanted to be somebody his teachers and classmates would be proud of, somebody who would be able to do anything if he so wanted. He simply wanted to be the best he could, if only to be able to smile and laugh alongside all these extraordinary people if they ever were to meet again._

 _"Then so be it."_

 _And gently, the swirl expended._

* * *

Nag-Sapphire woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling. Then the events of the night before came back to mind and his brain determined that suspension of disbelief was really one of the best choices he had ever made in his life: he was pretty sure he would be freaking out without it.

Maybe dying? Check.

Maybe dying and being transported to another world? Check.

Stopping a robbery less than one hour later? Check.

Glowing blue from some strange aura thing? Check

The world has monsters? Check.

School training super soldiers to fend them off? Check.

He was enrolled as both a student and a teacher? Check.

Strange dream he can't remember, but he's sure is important? Check.

The furious impression somebody is laughing his lungs off somewhere? Double check.

Yep, his life -or was it death now?- was some kind of cosmic joke, the only thing missing was some kind of evil overlord scheming in secret to bring humanity's downfall.

* * *

Somewhere, a certain overlord woman scheming in secret sneezed.

* * *

But he would just roll with it and see where it would lead him. After all, if he had been able to become an assassin in less than a year then he could do anything if he was to do his best.

"Good morning!" He looked to the nightstand to see Ritsu happily waving her hand toward him. He smiled.

"Good morning Ritsu, how was your night?"

"Really good, I think I just had my first dream ever: I had a real body and we were all in class to prepare for our trip to the island, it was fun!" His smile faltered, he knew that he could not do anything right now but in a way Ritsu was trapped in her actual body, unable to go anywhere without somebody to bring her there.

"Say Ritsu, do you... Do you think I could do anything for you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... All the year you were with us: when we went into space, on the Island... When we wanted to do something you were always at our side, but... But we've never done anything for you: we never... I've never even stopped to see if there was something you wanted to do, something I could do to help you, if there was anything, anything at all that was just for you and not for the sake of our objective! And now... Now I want to catch up with all I should have done, even if there is no way I can change what already happened, I want to know if there is anything, anything at all, I could do for you."

She seemed taken aback before putting on the second biggest smile he had ever seen, Koro-sensei's smile being absolutely unbeatable in that category, and released an honest chuckle.

"I don't think it's what you meant, but I think you could certainly take a shower: you didn't really have the time to wash yourself since we escaped the facility."

He flushed before hurriedly taking off toward the bathroom his host had indicated the night before. Once there he let himself smile before proceeding to undress himself.

"Eep! Nagisa! You brought me with you!"

He blinked, looked down at his already shirtless chest, looked to his scroll still in his hand, processed the fact that Ritsu of all people had just eeped. His brain caught up with his situation: he was in a bathroom, undressing with a girl next to him. A cyber girl, yes, but a girl none the less.

"Gah! Gomen, sore wa sore gaomowa reru monode wa arimasen!"

"No, it- It's okay, bu- but you should be careful: you were speaking in Japanese." They had decided to keep to English to ease the transition.

"Y-Yeah, sorry about that, I should not have forced you to come here. Do you want me to bring you back to the room?"

"No, it's- it's okay, I'll just... Close my eyes and it should be okay. Right?"

"Well, if you say so."

He gently put her on the edge of the shelve where a towel had been placed with a 'for Sapphire' on top before finishing his undressing and entering in the shower. He closed the curtain and let the hot water do its magic on his crisped muscles, absent-mindedly noting how dust flowed with the water from his hair toward the drain. He let out a pleased sigh, little things sometime made for the best pleasures.

Once clean he reached a hand to his towel that he wrapped around his waist and exited the shower. He felt better than he had in almost a week: no governmental facility, no super soldiers, no Yanagisawa, no number two, no fear of what might happen if they were to fuck up their operation, no nothing. He was free: free to adapt to his situation, free to choose his way, just free.

He let out a laugh, not a bitter laugh to hide his pain, not a sad laugh to réconfort himself: a happy laugh, a free laugh.

And he laughed, he laughed, he laughed.

A little part of his mind pointed out that his benefactor was dead, another replied that so was he!

He knew he sounded like a maniac, but he knew better: he was just happy, there was no more expectation forced on him, now he was the one who would choose what path he walked. Not as Nagisa Shiota mind you, but as Sapphire Nagisa.

And what a strange idea it was.

* * *

He blinked, it had took him a moment to recover his calm, but when he stopped laughing, he had found a puzzling sight in the symbol on his outfit: the previously simple crescent moon and snake on his heart and back had become an amalgam of the two: a snake embracing a crescent moon.

"Ritsu?"

"Yes? Can I open my eyes again?"

"Yes, you can. But please, tell me that I'm not going crazy, that this" he pointed to the emblem " has changed in the night and that I'm not hallucinating."

"You're not going crazy, it has changed in the night and you're not hallucinating?" She could have passed for innocent if he didn't know that she knew perfectly well what he meant. But it was enough to make him smile again.

"Thank you. So, what do you say about going now to give our testimony?"

"I say let's go!"

* * *

The police station was about the same the day as it was the night: quiet.

A policeman had come almost immediately, the testimony had been fast to be dealt with and had hallowed to identify the aggressor as a certain Roman Torchwick: a thief apparently well known by the authorities.

He almost left before an idea came to him.

"Excuse me, mister!"

"Yes kid?"

"Do you think I could talk with the henchmen from yesterday? I would like to ask them something."

"Don't know what in hell you would want to ask these guys, but sure! They have been pretty good prisoners too, really quiet, so I don't think there would be any problem. Just make sure they don't take you hostage 'kay kid?" The last part had been said more like a joke than anything, but Sapphire appreciated the advice; it at least meant that the man cared.

"I will do my best, sir."

"Nah! Sir is my grandpa, you can call me Malva you know!"

"With pleasure, Mister Malva."

"Gah! You're doing it on purpose ain't you?"

And so they made their way through the underground corridor, Malva was actually of good company even if a little chatty and Sapphire caught himself smiling all the way to the cells until they finally stopped before a big iron door.

"Well, kid, here we are, your dates are behind this damn heavy thing. I'll wait here and try to understand why the hell they put milk in my coffee while you go do your thing. Just call when you're finished 'kay?"

"Yes, Mister Malva!"

"Gargh! Just go already!"

Sapphire chuckled as he passed the door and observed the room he found himself in: A long well lit corridor littered with protruding iron cells, seemingly high technology doors closing nine of them. Just as he watched, a small window opened on each to let him see the face of the thugs from yesterday.

One of them yawned before sleepily stretching."Already time to eat? Must have slept longer than I..." He stopped dead. "Aaaaaaaah! It's him! He's come to finish us! Nooo! I don't want to die before finding a girlfriend!"

Sapphire blinked, he blinked a lot these days, before falling over laughing. "Nonono! Hahaha! I'm not here to... Haha! To 'finish you' haha!" He couldn't stop himself, the situation was just so damn funny: for once the roles were inverted, with him as the terrifying one. Him! Of all people!

The one with the beard threw his shoe to the panicking one."Don't sweat it, Taro's always been a bit of a moron, even by the slum's standard. But tell me, why're ya coming to our charming little place? I doubt it's fer admiring the view."

"No, I was here to ask you why you were with Torchwick yesterday. You are clearly not thieves and he didn't seem to know you all that well."

"Ye've got a good head. A shame same can't be said of the cops' boss. But yeah, we ain't robbers: we're bodyguards. Our boss had some problems with a bunch of stuck-up from the upper class gangs, bad story really, and that prick in the bowler hat promised to resolve it if he bent his rules a little. The boss was not really 'kay with all this shit to begin with, but we, dumb as we are, convinced him that it was just an exception an' that if it was fer him we were good with it. So he accepted if the prick promised he'd make sure we'd be okay. Look at us, rotting in a cell, dirty liar of a bastard." The man let himself fall in his chair.

Sapphire liked what he was hearing, if half of what was said was true, then these people were not that bad: just a bunch of poor guys trying to help somebody they looked up to, it even gave him an idea.

"This 'boss', he seem like a kind man. Can you tell me who he is?"

The man smiled."Kind doesn't even do him justice, this guy's the one who gave the dumb kids of the slum we were a place ta be when everybody just tried ta forget about us. So I ain't going ta betray his trust and tell ye who he is, and it's gonna be the same fer the others: we ain't gonna sell you our hero."

Oh yes, he liked what was said more and more.

"You don't understand, I don't want to have him arrested, I want to meet him. I'm not really on the bright side of the law either, but I do what I can to be on the side that help others; I want you to be free and propose him my help."

The men looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

"Just who are ye to say something like that?"

"My name is Sapphire Nagisa. And I am an assassin."

* * *

Half an hour later Sapphire was back at the front of the station, his eyes determined and his destination chosen.

Ritsu's voice came from his holster. "Their story sounds a lot like ours, right?"

"Yes, and this is why I'll help them."

"This is why _we_ will help them!"

"Right!"

The club they had told him about was situated on the other side of the city, a few miles away from the station, at the edge of the slum. Seeing as he had no idea of the way, and that he had to step up his training regime if he wanted to keep up with his future classmate, he chose the logical road.

He ran to a nearby building and jumped, catching the emergency stair rail to propel himself at roof level where he landed smoothly before he almost instantly leaped to the next one, from where he used power cables to cross the street gap, careful to never touch two at the same time. He laughed, he was dozen of feet above the ground and he was free.

* * *

Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, was definitely not doing her best to annoy her father by choosing the most expensive suite in the most expensive hotel of Vale, not at all, she was also definitely not refusing to answer his calls to annoy him further. She was just too focused on making sure she was ready to go to Beacon the day after tomorrow and if she was actually admiring the view while lazily drinking from the glass in her hand... Well, she had the right to make a pause once in a while, no?

She was distracted from her musing by the sound of laughter. Which was really strange because she actually was on the seventh floor and thus the street's sound did not come to her that defined. She looked up only to see a blue shape jumping from the roof before bouncing from a wall to another until it landed on the roof of the building in front of her, slowing just enough to not fall on impact and letting her discern a blue haired person clad in blue taking off toward the southeast, all the while laughing.

She looked down at the glass in her hand, made sure it didn't contain any alcohol and downed it in one gulp because there was no way that what she just saw was normal.

* * *

Lie Ren was having a good day: Nora was about as calm as she could be, they had found a good place to eat at the border between the industrial and commercial districts and they had helped a child to find her lost stuffed rabbit. Yes, he was having a good day.

A laugh made him and Nora look up to see a boy, most people would have thought it was a girl but he was a little more perceptive than most people, run on power cables and jump to a nearby roof where he landed on the hands and flipped himself to his feet before keeping on running.

"Hey, Ren! Look, a ninja! Can we do like the ninja too? I mean, you already are like a ninja, but I wanna try to run like that and I don't want to let you alone. Huh, not that you can't be alone, it's just that, you see!"

He sighed. Well, at least she just wanted to run, it could have been worse.

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos was not having a good day: her bullhead had landed two hours ago and somebody had immediately recognized her. By the time she got her luggage back from the cargo hold, a small band of fans and reporters were asking her questions left and right and she didn't want to hurt their feelings by asking them to let her alone.

"Miss Nikos, what made you chose to go to Beacon Academy rather than Haven Academy?" Asked a thoroughly forgettable reporter.

"W-Well, I-" She was interrupted by somebody laughing somewhere over them.

She watched as the peoples' jaw hit the ground, looked to where one of them was pointing and suddenly understood their awe: there was somebody running on the side of a bullhead taking off. She almost shouted in warning when they jumped but they grabbed a street lamp and used it to launch themselves toward a warehouse roof with seemingly no effort at all.

She sent a look toward the still dumbfounded group and took advantage of the respite to apologize and quickly take her leave.

* * *

Jaune Arc, youngest child and only boy of his family was nervous: in two days, he would be a student at Beacon Academy for huntsmen and huntresses and he was not really sure what to make of it. If he had been legitimately accepted, then it would probably not have been that nerve wrecking, but he had actually falsified his application so... Yeah, not the best start, but he hadn't really had a choice did he?

A laugh took him out of his thought and he gratefully let himself be distracted by the girl jumping from roof to roof in an impressive display of mastery and blatant mockery of Gravity.

Yeah, that was cool. Maybe he would be able to do the same with some training, he certainly hoped so: it looked like it was fun.

* * *

Blake Belladona was not paranoid, or at least not to that extent, but she was tense as a bowstring and she had every right to be, she didn't want to think about what would happen if Adam ever found her, but it would not be pleasant. She had moved from shabby hotel rooms to abandoned apartments for the last week and she had felt more and more anxious with each day passing. She would be safe once at Beacon but until then...

Her bow twitched as the sound of laughter came to her sensitive ears, curiously not one of those fake laughs the women of the district used when some man tried to halfheartedly seduce them, but the hearty laugh of somebody genuinely enjoying themselves. She looked to her left just in time to catch a blur of blue making its way at the top of a building.

Her lips curled a little, maybe she could hide in a high place tonight.

* * *

Sapphire let himself drop to the ground, using a gutter to slow his fall and took a moment to let the adrenaline fade from his system and to let his laughter recede.

"That was fun!" Ritsu laughed out from the scroll.

He quietly acquiesced and let his gaze fall on the club's name: 'The Den'. A good name for a place like this one, he really liked the owner more and more and he had yet to meet him.

He entered the place, mindful of the glass shards lying everywhere and of the men doing their best to wash the place, he idly noted that they all wore the same outfit as his new contacts, and made his way toward the bar where he could see a man trying to repair a chair with the help of two girls.

"Excuse me?"

The man looked up and sighed. "Hello kid, I'm sorry but we're closed today, so I can't serve you anything. But I think you're a little too young to drink alcohol anyway." He sounded weary.

"No no, I'm not here to drink, I'm searching for somebody."

The man put his head in his hands and the girls visibly tensed. "Not another one! Listen, I don't want any of this right now, if I can't answer you then I can't and you just get out of here without breaking anything."

"You don't understand, I'm not searching for information, I'm searching for somebody called Junior, your colleagues told me I could find him here."

The girls giggled and the man smirked. "You're talking to him, what's that about my colleagues?"

Sapphire flushed. "Erm, I'm sorry mister, your men only told me your name and where I could find you. I came to tell you about them and talk with you about a proposition I have."

Junior's face lost all trace of humor and he stood up, towering over the assassin from his height.

"Follow me, this is not something to talk about where anybody can hear. Melanie, Militia you stay here and make sure we don't have a remake of the other day."

He led him to a small lounge at the back of the bar and beckoned him to sit in one of the sofa before taking place in the one opposite.

"Now begin with what happened to my guys. Straight to the point, I don't want to hear any bullshit." Junior said while taking a shot at the bottle on the table.

"They are under arrest at the police station in the North-West, they attacked the shop I was in and Torchwick ditched them when things started to look down for him. They explained the situation to me and I convinced the policemen that they were blackmailed, we just need you to confirm the story and they'll be free as the wind."

Junior squinted his eyes. "And what do you gain from this?"

"I'm only doing what I think is just. And after hearing about you from them I wanted to propose you a partnership."

"A likely story, but what proof do I have that you're not just lying to get me behind the bars?"

Sapphire smiled and take out his scroll from his holster. "Mister Junior, meet Ritsu, she's a precious comrade and she has every proof you want."

Junior looked at him a little puzzled. "You gave a name to your scroll?"

"Actually, the scroll is only my support. It's nice to meet you mister." Ritsu waved from her screen.

"Sure, first some blonde destroy my place, then you come here to negotiate and now this. What's next? Magic powered women?"

* * *

Somewhere four women sneezed at the exact same time.

* * *

Sapphire smiled nervously. "I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Don't be. So anyway, the proofs?"

Ritsu made a move of her hand and a recording of their meeting in the station's cell began to play, followed by one of his negotiation with the police officers.

"Okay, I believe you. I'll go there once we're finished here. You talked about a partnership, care to elaborate?"

"Yes, Ritsu and I are actually trained assassins recently arrived in town, we have been engaged by Beacon academy and we wanted to set up a network of contacts and for eventual contracts."

Junior tensed. "And you want me to work under you?"

"No, we want to ask you to work alongside us. What your men told us... Remind us of our own situation until now and we respect enough what you do to propose you a deal." Ritsu answered.

Junior seemed to suddenly relax.

"Okay, tell me what it is and I'll see if I accept."

"We heard that beside owning this club you work as an informant. This is what we actually need, a place from which we could operate and information. In return, you would protect you and help you to extend your operation in addition to solve all eventual problems we would be able to, beginning with this gang menacing your men to make you work for them." Sapphire explained.

"Sound good. But you're sure you can hold your end? Seems a little big for just a kid and a girl in two dimension."

"Certain."

"Then I'll bite, if you can stop these guys then we have a deal." Junior said as he extended his hand.

Sapphire took hold of it and gave a small shake."We have a deal."

"Just a question before you go, are you a boy or a girl?"

Junior could have sworn that the iron table Sapphire's head crashed into had been made of wood a second ago.

* * *

Sapphire shuffled, the roof on which he was kneeling was much less comfortable than the dirt and tree branches he was familiar with. He and Ritsu had decided to act immediately rather than wait until the next day, she had rightly pointed out that they needed to build a reputation in the underworld and what better than put a big gang in their place in a matter of hours?

At first, things had been easy: Junior had told him where the gang's territory was situated and once in the place he had almost groaned when he had discovered that their headquarter was situated in a tower proudly harboring ' **Golden skull** ' in _neon letters_. Either these men were completely stupid or plain arrogant. And while it played in his favor, there was something terribly disappointing in discovering that his new target would be so much easier than the previous one.

But even if they were overconfident they were still an organized gang and as such were not to be underestimated, one of the first lessons Lovro-sensei had dispensed to the class during his visits had been a long enumeration of every assassin whose operation had suddenly took a turn for the worst because of their overconfidence, along with a really detailed explanation of what happened to each of them, which had managed to impress Karma of all people and concluded with an exercise consisting in making a list of observations on Karasuma-sensei who had reluctantly accepted to play along. Ritsu and he had excelled at it so between the two of them it had been laughably simple to set their monitoring of the target.

First, he had walked up to one of the guards at the entry and discretely took his scroll when he passed in his back, another proof that pride blinded them if he still needed one, Ritsu had copied every data she could put her hands on and he had replaced it in the man's pocket as if nothing had ever happened before he repeated the same on the next guard and so on. A half hour later they had been able to identify the time of the changing of the guard with a margin of error of less than ten minutes and get a vague idea of the building's interior layout.

And now he was here, on the roof of the house in front of his targets, learning all he could about the gang while waiting for the time to strike. Their plan was ambitious and needed to be applied as swiftly and smoothly as possible, any misstep could and would have dire consequences and he could feel the adrenaline rising with each second closer of its start.

"Now." Ritsu's voice came as nothing more than a whisper from the earpiece in his hood. He made sure that nothing but his eyes were visible of his face and leaped from the roof toward an unguarded window he had identified some hours sooner. He ensured his hold on the frame with his left hand and took one knife in the other that he inserted in the small gap between the wall and the window itself to cut the lock maintaining it closed. He slipped inside the room, a weapon reserve and placed his scroll next to a crate marked with ' **Explosives! Handle with care** '.

Ritsu's voice came again. "Remote bombs under my control, system shuts down." Good, this was one danger neutralized.

He proceeded with the locked door as he had done with the window and replaced the blade with the taser and stun-baton. The true challenge was starting now. He concealed himself in the and followed the hallway until he arrived before a door. Placing his ear against the wood he could hear muffled voices on the other side. He took a deep breath, knocked against the hard surface and pressed himself against the ceiling, one hand on a wall, the feet on the other and the taser firmly hold between his teeth through the fabric covering his face.

"I swear if it's for-" The man's complaint was cut short by a sudden electrical discharge in his neck sending him to the land of dreams. Without letting his companions the time to understand what was happening, Sapphire leaped into the room by using the door-frame to send his feet into the first's solar plexus and used him as a launching pad to launch himself at the last goon who got a taser discharge in the Adam's apple. Sapphire turned back to the choking man on the ground, it was a trick he had learned in Karasuma-sensei's self-defense lessons: a strong enough impact at the solar plexus would force the air out of the lungs and block the respiration for a short moment. He didn't let this short moment to the man and hit him in the temple, effectively sending him to join his comrades into unconsciousness. He destroyed their scrolls and exited the room.

This skirmish, as successful as it had been had confirmed an issue: these people did not possess an active aura, which limited his arsenal to only non-lethal method so his taser, stun-baton and his own body were his only option. He knew it should have bothered him, but he could only feel his heart pounding a little more in answer to the challenge. He plunged deeper into the corridors' shadows.

He ran into some men walking alone to somewhere, he let only unconscious body in his wake. He found other occupied rooms, the occupants never understood what hit them. Each time he destroyed their scroll to be sure they would not call for backup when they would wake up. The more he progressed, the more the risk of somebody finding the bodies and raising the alarm grew. He only grew more excited, the only times he had felt this way were in Number two's underground facility and during their assault on the unit of soldiers, the knowledge he could lose his life at every moment sounding more like a challenge than a threat.

He finally arrived before the door of the room the gang kept his prisoners in, marked ' **Cells, do not enter without authorization** ' as if to prove even more these peoples' arrogance. He took a look by the keyhole, counted four guards and took note of each's position. They were all placed with their back to the door, keeping an eye on the prisoners to prevent any attempt to escape without even thinking that anybody would be able to reach them unnoticed. Big mistake. He also noticed a camera in a corner. Perfect, now time to know if he could channel Karma as well as he hoped.

Sapphire concealed all bloodlust and opened the door as silently as he could, the small noise of the latch covered by the men's conversation. He shocked the first two in one single movement, latched at his hip to exchange his stun-baton with the knife on his leg as he let himself fall to the ground where he caught himself on his hands and used his new support to kick the leg of the third man from under him before getting his feet back on the ground and crashing the handle of his blade in the side of the falling man's head. The last guard never got the time to take his gun out before two fingers found their way to his throat and made him keel over as he tried to get his breath back, his head encountered a rising knee on its way and he joined his colleagues in the land of dreams. The action had lasted ten seconds.

He sheathed his knife and taser and took his pistol, without paying attention to the fear of the prisoners for now, he rose it toward the camera.

His voice echoed in the room. "You're next." And he shot the device.

He turned toward the cells before shooting the locks and he turned toward the prisoners.

"You're free."

A crying boy, barely older than height ran to Sapphire and circled his arms around him. "Th-thank you mister! Th-they said they were going t-to kill me i-if dad told the poli-the police!" The assassin's eyes narrowed and suddenly every qualm he had about the gang's boss melted like snow under the sun, somebody was going to pay.

* * *

She was terrified, none of her men answered her calls with the exception of the two guarding her door. Why was it happening? Today had begun as any other day, the team of negotiators had brought the fee for the hostage survival, the cops of the district were still licking her boots so she didn't have their families killed, she had done nothing to get the bad side of the top of the underground and the worms at the bottom of the scale were still cowering in fear. So why?! Why was this demon here?! He had utterly destroyed the cell's guards in an instant as if he had been taking a stroll down an alley when they were among her elite! And he was coming here, he was after her! Those eyes when he had spoken! They were not human! They were those of an animal, those of a beast ready to pounce on his prey! And she was the prey!

She had locked the door of her office and ordered to her two last men to protect her no matter the cost. She would be safe, the door was made of dust laced steel and could only be opened with a succession of six code code of eight numbers. She should feel safe, there was no way he could pass the door, the two mountains of muscle before it were the best she had and they knew he was coming. So why?! Why was she still afraid?! And why was it happening to her?! She was not a fighter, her dead father's money had been enough to start a little gang that had rapidly climbed the power scale. Nobody should even dare to attack her! She had never hit anyone so why would they hit her?!

And the door opened! How had he opened the door?! What had happened to her guard?! She saw him step over the head of one of them, but it was impossible! They were aura user and he was small and they were big and they were strong and they were two when he was alone! He beat them! He beat them and he was here and she was... She was gonna die! He was gonna kill her!

Oh Dust! He was approaching!

"Do-don't come closer! Stay back! Stay back!" She cried, but he still came closer!

Then he stopped before her desk. And he was playing with a knife!

He brought a finger to his mouth and suddenly the air felt heavier and she couldn't speak anymore.

"You know, I just wanted to free Junior's men when I came here." This voice! This voice! It was as if he was speaking about the weather and she was going to die! "I was even going to propose you to join us, but then I found this child in your cells. He was scared and he was sad. You made two mistakes. Do you know what they were?" Those eyes! Those eyes with only a slit in a pool of blue! She was going to die! She was going to die!

"First, you menaced my partner and then you broke a child's hope. 'The Den' is under my protection. Children... Are off limits."

And there was a snake! There was a monstrous snake overlapping with him! She was going to die! She was going to die!

She saw him take something in a sheath at his hip. What was he doing?! Why was he taking it?! Maybe... Maybe he was not going to kill her?

She felt him place the stun-baton on her neck, making her hold her breath.

"Did you know that in the neck there is the Vagus nerve? And that if you send a strong enough current through it the heart stop beating?"

No! She was going to die! She was going to die and she couldn't do anything! She couldn't speak! She couldn't move! She couldn't look away from those eyes! Those eyes! He was going to kill her!

The demon pressed the button.

* * *

He let himself fall on the ground. By the broken moon, it had been so strange. Bluffing like this was Karma's thing, not his. The woman had already been terrified when he had entered the room after Ritsu had hacked it so it had been easy to set up. Just let a little bloodlust leak to silence her, playing with the knife to put her on edge like Karma showed him and simply tell her about the vagus nerve before shocking her elsewhere to finish terrifying her. Karasuma-sensei had once told him that he had traumatized Takaoka after their fight on the island but to do it intentionally? It was terrifyingly easy.

"Ritsu? How is it going?"

"I already downloaded everything interesting and am currently deleting all the files I can find on their server."

"How many..." He sighed. "How many people did we beat?"

"Forty-seven, forty-eight if you count the one who fell in the stairs."

Forty-seven? He had eliminated forty-seven gang members in less than an hour? And he had been alone. No wonder the soldiers were fleeing like that, if one student alone with electronic support was able to do something like that then twenty seven with the same electronic support? They could probably take out an army if need arose and they were sufficiently prepared. And if they could make Ritsu physically join the fray... What a scary thought.

* * *

When he came back to 'The Den', it was to be welcomed by Junior sending him a hard pat on the back.

"You did it! I don't know how, but you did it... Partner. Come sit with us, they're talking about it in the news."

And before he could understand what was happening, he was sitting on a sofa next to Junior and watching the journal.

 _"We learn just now that the Golden skull gang has been finally stopped today. For our viewers who would not yet know about it, the Golden skull gang was a criminal organization specializing in taking hostages to get his way. This afternoon, the district's policemen got an anonymous call reporting the release of the hostages by an unknown party. When they arrived at the gang's headquarter, they found every member knocked out and their freed prisoners waiting before the building."_ While the reporter talked, pictures of the unconscious goons lying on the floor scrolled on the screen.

The bearded man from the station this morning let out a whistle. "Well, damn, if I knew ye were that good I would have surrendered when I saw ye yesterday." Sapphire just flushed from the compliment.

 _"The police's forces are still investigating to find the leader of the organization, Fushia Garden, and the person responsible for these acts. But we have been able to ask some of the ex-prisoners."_

 _"It was over in a second, one moment the guards were joking about something and the next they were sprawled on the floor and he was there."_ A young woman explained.

 _"It was so cool! He was like a ninja: he's beat the villain and he was like 'tcha' and 'paah'! And after that he shot the lock and the door opened! And he was nice! He took me in his arms and he said like 'Don't worry, I will beat the big mean lady'!"_ The kid from the cell happily shouted in the reporter's micro.

"Seems like somebody got a fan." Laughed Junior with another pat on the back.

 _"I am being told that the police found the leader and is actually bringing her down."_ The camera turned toward the entrance and after a few moments waiting two men exited the building, training a fuchsia haired woman in their wake while she shouted at the top of her lungs _"Children are off limits! Children are off limits! I'll never do it again, I swear! I swear! Those eyes! Those eyes! He's gonna kill me! Help!"_ she launched herself at a policeman nearby and squeezed the collar of his uniform. _"The demon has blue eyes! He will come! He's gonna kill me! He's gonna kill me!"_ She broke down in tears and was placed into the police wagon.

"What the hell was that? The fuck did you do to her?" Asked somebody from somewhere in the back.

"She menaced a child! I had to make sure she would not do it again." But he could not argue that he had maybe gone a little too far, it was terrifying to discover how much something as easy as it had been could break somebody to such an extend.

"Well, shit! Where were you when my father used his belt? He could have done with a little scare like this."

"Now shut up guys! Let him breathe a little!" Bellowed Junior.

The report quickly ended after that and the room erupted into cheers.

Junior's voice came over the noise. "I offer a round! And a toast to our new comrades, Sapphire and Ritsu!"

The cheers came back and the two assassins let themselves be dragged in the mood.

* * *

 **For a new sky**

 **Dance a blur of scales**

 **For a new den**

 **Sing a flash of fangs**

 **For a young**

 **Hiss the great snake**

* * *

 _ **Stare at the word count, the word count stare back... What the heck happened to my 3k words chapter?**_

 _ **Stare at the story's stats, the story's stats stare back. Finish my note in a hospital bed. 27 reviews, 131 followers, 103 favorites and 4028 visits when this chapter comes out. You guys rock! How the fuck did I got so much success with only two chapters?**_

 _ **About this monster of a chapter, I talked about original content, here it come. I never was really okay with Junior's characterization in most fanfictions. Sure he was introduced by fighting Yang but he's not a bad guy, he was even pretty friendly until Yang started to go nutcracker and even later he was willing to forgive her until she decided to do a world war remake in his club, so in my fic, he's gonna be a good guy with questionable morality who held his men dear to him. As for the Golden skull's fate... Sapphire is a trained assassin.**_

 _ **I answered to the review already I jus want to say something to the prick who had the gall to come insult me without even having the balls to do it with his account. The guest called Matt has seen his review deleted and if he ever come again his comment will be suppressed without reading it. You tell something, you assume, a guest account to insult somebody is just plain cowardice.**_

 _ **Review, follow, favorite! See you after the damn exams!**_


	4. Let the world know

_Pain rage suffering joy sadness pain content sadness remorse delight **INSANITY.**_

It strain against its prison of links, one idea roaring over the madness of its being. Make _the **pain STOP.**_

* * *

The Chief groaned, he hated having to bring together the 'round table', like the newbies liked to call it, and that was for a reason: every area's head had their own way of dealing with their own responsibility and every time these idiots were in the same room the conversation inevitably devolved in a shouting match to know who was right. Aspirin had quickly become available on the table along with an endless supply of coffee, even if it would never come close to Beacon's in term of quality, it was still a good thing to have close at hand.

He sent a look to the clock, ten seconds to nine. Good, it meant he could begin. He let his aura flare, the surge of purple light instantly silencing his men.

"It seems you have stopped bickering like four years old. Good." Nobody dared to make a sound, while their boss was generally like a second father, the events of the previous day had put him in a wrath like they had rarely seen before. And every time heads would roll regardless of collateral damages."I believe you all know why we are here so I will start with the easy subject. Katha, you are fired. Do you know why?"

"Yes, sir."

"I don't think so. You are fired because you let a gang seize power of your zone without saying anything to anybody. The situation had apparently been going on for years and I learned of it through the news channels! I don't care they had superior firepower or hostages, scratch that, worst of all you let them take hostages, including children! We are in collaboration with the huntsmen for this exact kind of situations! But you said nothing and we needed a vigilante to take care of that! If you know what you did was wrong, then why did you do it? I'll tell you why: because you are a coward! I don't need men like that in our rank! The huntsmen are our first line of defense against the enemy outside and we! Are! The first line! Against! The Enemy! Inside! Our! Walls! Now be happy I don't throw you in a cell with these scums and pray for our path to never cross again. Get! Out!"

When he stopped talking Katha bolted for the door in a trembling mess, tears of fear and shame flowing on his cheeks. The assembly, mute in respect and fear, could only stare as one of the strongest men in Vale reminded them of why he was often as feared as the like of Ozpin, allegedly one of, if not the, strongest huntsman of all times.

"Now that this is done, I would like to introduce you the one who will replace Katha. You ccan enter now Deltiou." The door opened to a middle aged woman, her green hair flowing in a nonexistent wind, who tactfully ignored everybody to sit on the now empty chair. "So let's cut the crap here, Deltiou, your new colleagues. Peoples, Deltiou. Now I would like to pass on to the rest of yesterday events. Can somebody give me a full report of the situation? I'll personally explain about our new vigilante."

The leader of the investigation rose in her seat. "Yes, sir. Yesterday at 1736 hour we received a call claiming the hostages of the Golden Skull gang had been released, it is now confirmed that the caller was one such hostage using the scroll of one of their kidnappers. Our forces reached the place six minutes later to find the entirety of the gang, forty-eight members and their leader, Fushia Garden, unconscious. Of them all two were confirmed as aura users whose level has been estimated as middle level academy graduates. We have seized three millions six-hundred thousand liens accumulated over the course of seven years as well as two hundred kilos of explosives, principally fire Dust mixed with wind Dust with a few crates of remote controlled explosives. No weapons were found apart from the ones on the criminals themselves and evidences led us to think they did not need more for hostage trade. A total of twenty four hostages have been confirmed, including a child. We believe there were more as one of the former captives confirm the gang executed at least three prisoners who tried to evade. Their families have been found and confirmed they had no ideas about their death. Fushia Garden's interrogation has been extremely productive, she has confessed every crime she has ever done though she was unable to tell us anything about yesterday because of panic attacks every time the events were mentioned. Her only answer was, I quote:'He's gonna kill me, don't let him kill me. I will never touch anybody again, please don't let me go.' Our psychiatrist recommends an internment in an asylum. Her subordinates could not reveal us anything more and the hostages refuse to sell their hero." She sat down again.

The chief stood up."As you can understand, the gang was not a small player. And yet they have been eliminated by one person alone. The grunts were all alive when they were found and our doctors confirmed that all of them had been either shocked, be it through a tool or an electric semblance, though elements make me think it is not a semblance, strangled into unconsciousness or hit on specifics vital points. Those three methods require an extensive knowledge of the human body and a tremendous control of the vigilante's own movements. We have found their access point to be an unguarded window in the explosive storage on the third floor whose lock has been cut. To do this our vigilante required great agility and knowledge of the building's layout. The remote bombs were all disarmed, the door leading to the leader's room has been opened without any of the Dust in it used to regenerate the steel and all records of their presence in the building were erased. This demonstrates incredible hacking skills. I have only encountered such a situation three times, including now. Our first vigilante in twenty years is a trained killer and a good one at that. If they wanted they could have easily eliminated every person in the building. Good thing they seem to be on the good side. From what we could gather from Garden's crazy rants they seem to have a snake with them, or be a snake Faunus, hard to be sure. Does anybody have a question?"

"What will their designation be, sir?"

The chief smiled. "Nehebkau, the two headed snake guarding of the underworld.

* * *

Tukson tried to stay calm, the Fang's new leader gave him the creeps, there was something not quite right in the way he acted: a small thing rubbing his instincts the wrong way. He already had plans to leave the organization when its objectives had slowly started to change from gaining Faunus' rightful place as the equals of humans to making all of humanity suffer for the errors of the fools. Now, watching Adam Taurus exhorting the poor sods from his stage, he felt like he could not separate from the group fast enough.

Taurus' voice rose stronger in the warehouse."And the humans will soon pay for all their atrocities. Yesterday a brave Faunus put an end to the crimes of the gang the police had let abuse us in all impunity, he destroyed them and put them back in their just place. True justice has been dealt and soon, very soon we will join him to bring humanity's to our feet. They will learn to respect us like they should. But for a hero like this one it has been decided to name him with a name truly befitting a crusader of the Faunus people. He will now be known to us by the name of Opiuchus, for just as we have been denied our just place on Remnant, so has this constellation be denied its place in the Zodiac. We shall now fight under our own stars!"

Tukson felt disgust as the crowd erupted in cheers. Pretty lies and empty words, if Taurus believed half of what he was saying then he was ready to eat every book in his library. The Police Chief was one of his regular and was one of the nicest people he had ever had the pleasure to meet, if he had known about these skulls scums he would have probably gone to them himself and let only a pile of rubble behind. As for this Opiuchus? Probably one of those Beacon vigilante like they frequently had when he was a kid, but just because people thought he was a snake Faunus then he suddenly was a messianic figure fighting the evil humans to save the poor abused Faunus people and guide them to the promised supremacy, sarcasm fully intended.

When the propaganda reunion ended, he could not get back to his library fast enough.

* * *

Ozpin kept looking through his window as Glinda entered his office.

"Good morning."

"Ozpin, we need to talk." Ah, it was always interesting when Glinda started with 'We need to talk'

"About yesterday's events I presume. Tell me, are you still doubting his place in our school?"

"You mean it was this Sapphire?"

"Yes, my friend, it was. Though he, without any doubt, had his friend's help. And I believe they did a good don't you think so?"

If Glynda was angered by his casual tone she didn't show it. "They became vigilantes Ozpin, surely you understand the danger it involves."

"I do, indeed, it is good to see old traditions are not as lost as they seemed. But I have to say, I am impressed: a full gang taken down in less than a day, forty nine enemies beaten and twenty four hostages freed without any death on either side. Quite a good track record for a first public act."

"Are you sure it is a good idea to have such an unpredictable person teaching to impressible students?"

"I do believe his morale more will than assure he will take good care of them. After all, he managed to pacify a crime lord, I believe."

"By making her go insane!"

"I like to think it was karma at work."

* * *

One universe and times away, a red-haired student sneezed in the middle of beating a bully.

* * *

 _"This is Lisa Lavender, for the morning report. Today, we bring you great news, an hour ago the Police service confirmed what was on everybody's mind: Vale is now once again the home of a vigilante. After the last vigilante group, in the person of the now famous STRQ team of huntsmen, put an end to its activities a little under twenty years ago the place had been unoccupied since._

 _For our public who were too young to remember, we will make a brief resume of the law's position on vigilantism upon request of the legal authorities._

 _While vigilantism is not illegal in Vale like it is in Atlas, the police will still try to arrest the vigilante as a way to make them remember that if the authorities can catch them, then so can the underground, a caught vigilante will be given two choices: put an end to their career or start working under the Police Chief's direct authority. We remind you though that only people with good training are allowed to become vigilantes. Should an untrained civilian be caught in acts of vigilantism then legal pursuits will be engaged._

 _To go back on Vale's new protector, they have been given the designation of Nehebkau and have been confirmed to work alone. Their entry on the justice's scene is the most impressive ever registered, with the dismantling of an entire gang leading to the release of said gang's hostages. The police has been unable to give any description other than the possibility of them being a Faunus._

 _It was Lisa Lavender, for the morning report."_

* * *

Yang turned her attention away from the television to look at her father. "You were a vigilante?"

Taiyang shrugged. "Yeah, I still blame your uncle."

Ruby bounced from her place at the table. "Story time! How did it happen?"

"Well, as I said, it was entirely your uncle's fault. You know, he's not always had the same kind of ridiculous tolerance to alcohol he's got now. So one day in first year he goes outside while telling us he'd be back before sundown. It was dark when we started looking for him and we were all a little upset because we just came back from a mission involving the most annoying village ever. So when we found him completely wasted in a bar punching drunkards we might have gone a little overboard when we put an end to the brawl. The barman called the cops and next thing I know we were running away from the place with the sirens blaring behind us. We learned in the next day's news that we accidentally knocked out a known thief in the chaos and the police caught her when they came to arrest us. We got a vigilante designation and... Well, if people already considered us heroes of the night, why not keep going? We got caught by the Chief a month before graduating and we spent the next few weeks working for him." He smiled at his daughters' looks of disbelief. "What? It's true."

Try as they might, the sisters could not picture their uncle more drunk than he always was, much less wasted enough to randomly punch some random people. When uncle Qrow caused a fight it was always by mocking someone until they tried to beat him up.

Yang suddenly turned to her father in horror. "He can be sober? My whole life is a lie! Maybe my sister is not really obsessed with weapons, maybe the baker is not really gay. Ruby, tell me you're still socially awkward, prove me there is something true in my existence."

Ruby pouted."Hey! I'm not that bad, it's just that people are more scary than their weapons..."

"Oh, good. It was real, now I just have to get you to break out of your shell."

Watching the drama unfold from where he was sitting, Taiyang burst into laughter. "I'm gonna miss this tomorrow. Still, last day before you two go to Beacon, what do you say we make it count?"

The girls cheered.

* * *

It was like watching a train wreck, madness at its finest, the vilest side of humanity, it was indescribable. It was breakfast at the Den.

"Where's the jam?!"

"How do you manage to make a new toaster explode like that?!"

"Hey, who's supposed to make the eggs?!"

"Stop yappin' when yer mouth is full dumbass!"

"Who put salt in the pancakes?!"

"For grimm's sake, I told you to make the coffee black, why did you put milk in it?!"

Sapphire was torn between being horrified at the sight of an entire room devolving into chaos in less than a second, still be awestruck at the sheer size of the underground facility hidden under the club, the second biggest one in the kingdom Junior had said, or actually start betting on the time it would take for an all out brawl to start like Ritsu, Melanie and Militia were doing on the other side of the table.

"Erm, where's Junior?" he asked.

"In the kitchen, he lost a bet a few years ago, so every time the place gets wrecked he has to help the day's cooks until the club is back on track."

Junior chose this moment enter the room holding a tray full of, bacon? Probably bacon, it was hard to tell when his eyes seemed unable to stare at anything else than the bright pink frilly apron marked with 'Kiss the cook, you know you want to!' Junior was wearing over his clothes. He turned to the girls and wordlessly pointed toward the offending piece of clothing.

Melanie shrugged. "Part of the bet too, you get used to it after a few times."

Oh, he had no doubts about that, he had gotten used to Koro-sensei after all, but there were things he wished could be unseen. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "You were telling me about the 'morning report'?"

"Yes, it's basically a transmission of every information the law enforcers give to the public. Wanted people, White Fang activities, that kind of things. Today was a special edition."

"What was it about?"

Melanie sent him a look. "Well, you. What else?"

Sapphire choked on his breakfast. "Me? Why?"

"They tell about vigilantes too. Congrats, you're now called Nehebkau. Watch out for the fanclubs."

Vigilante? Now that he thought about it, his actions of yesterday and his projects did make him a vigilante... Wait! "Fanclubs?"

Junior chose this time to fall on a chair, the offensive apron nowhere to be seen. "Vigilantes are really popular in Vale, when I was a kid there was a few of them. The shops sold merchandise themed on them; heroes of the people who can't put their foot down without bursting their cover, perfect to make a buck. There were fanclubs, fan theories, fanfictions. You name it, there probably was something like that in the lot. And, seeing the impression you made... Well, be ready to see 'Nehebkau' become popular real fast."

That was wrong on so many levels! An assassin was somebody who thrived secret! Well, the God of Death actually had a reputation, but that was different: Koro-sensei had been the best assassin of all time and Sapphire was just... Sapphire. And fanfictions? With his look he'd probably be put in homosexual relationships, no homophobia, he could just not, for the life of him, see himself in such a relation after all of Karma's teasing.

He refocused on the subject at hand. "Isn't that illegal?"

Junior burst into laughter. "Illegal? Where do you come from? Atlas? Ain't nothing illegal to vigilantes in Vale since the end of the Great War."

Sapphire breathed deeply. Okay, now for a leap of faith, he had doubts, but Ritsu had convinced him. "Can I trust you to keep what I'm going to say secret?"

Militia rose her head from her conversation with Ritsu, Melanie stiffened and Junior stopped laughing. "Kid, you saved my men. If there is something you want to stay secret, then you can bet your fancy arsenal not a word's gonna get out about it."

"Ritsu and I come from another world."

Junior blinked. "Come again?"

"We come from another world. We've died two days ago and we woke up here."

"Well, that's probably the most interesting backstory I've heard of."

"You... Believe me?"

"I'm an informant, it's my job to know when somebody's lying. And you're not. Guess that means you've got a bunch of questions before going to Beacon."

"Erm, yes."

Ritsu reappeared on the scroll at Sapphire's Holster. "If I may, I was browsing your CCT system and I would like to ask a few questions myself."

"Now, you two, here's what I propose: I make a rough draft of Remnant and you interrupt when you want details. You okay with that?"

They nodded.

"Good, so there's four great kingdoms: Vale, Atlas, Mistral and Vacuo. Vale's where we are, pretty much the nicest place if you want my opinion: big mountains, shallow water, we're as much in safety as can be and the life is not half bad, plus we have the cops' big boss to keep the worst of the underground out. Atlas is in the North, you want tech, they're pretty much the experts. The population's mostly a bunch of stuck up who let the poor freeze when they moved from Mantle. The biggest Dust exporter's based there, but if you look a little they're pretty much everywhere. Then you've got Mistral, land of the rising sun, kingdom of the nature lovers and home to the worst underworld you can find on this planet. And you have Vacuo in the desert, used to be a paradise, but they've been fucked by pretty much everyone else. If you want to disappear, it's the best place: the law's pretty much 'don't fuck up', the natives are pretty welcoming and the oh so great Schnee Dust Company will be more than happy to put you in one of their mines."

"You don't seem to like that company." Ritsu remarked.

"Girl, since Jacques 'asshole' Schnee inherited it, the company's been responsible for half the human induced misery on this planet: Vacuo's mining, Faunus mistreatment. Half the underworld wants his head and the other's targeting his transports. I really pity those who have to live with him, he's got one of the worst personality I've ever seen. Questions?"

"What's a Faunus?"

"You didn't see peoples with animal ears, tail or feathers in the city? It's them."

"Oh! We thought they were cosplayers."

"You really thought a bunch of people were just gonna disguise themselves and go in the streets like it was normal?"

"It's pretty much like that where we're from."

"Right... So anyway, there's also Menagerie, an entire continent populated by Faunus that racists from years back tried to exile. That's about it for geography. Now you've got the worst thing on remnant, our pests. See, we've got these nasty beasts who try to kill us, are basically soulless, really adaptable and are attracted to negative feelings. To protect the common people from them you've got the huntsmen and huntresses who're basically badass monster killers. And they're formed at Beacon for Vale."

"What do you mean, attracted to negative feelings?"

"Eh, it's basically one of the biggest questions. What, exactly, are the Grimm? Well the same question's true for Dust. Oh, if you don't know, that's basically magical crystals."

"Hum, we have heard about Semblances. Do you know how you discover it?"

"No, you're better asking that to a huntsman, I've got too little aura to heal a scratch, so all I can really do is unlock it but that's about it. No semblance for me."

"Ah, sorry for asking."

"No problem. Now what do you think about a tour of the town? There's the Vytal festival this year, so we at least need to get you something for Beacon's ball."

Sapphire's mind came to a screeching halt. What?

What followed was one of the strangest day of the week.

* * *

He was late! He jumped. Why was there jet lag between Earth and Remnant? He caught a window sill and launched himself at a power cable. Ritsu had to wake him by shouting half an hour before the aircraft was supposed to take off. He ran over a billboard. Though he would not complain about waking up, his dream had been too disturbing for that. He rolled over a chimney. Why was Junior's tailor so... Fabulous? He ran along a building's side. Even in his dreams he could not escape images of the decidedly too small loincloth and oiled muscles. He shivered and almost fell from a four floor building's rooftop. He caught the opposite roof's edge and pushed on his feet to flip himself on the roof. Hum, now that he thought about it, free-running lessons could be a good idea to encourage a more open minded utilization of the field, most people had a tendency to never look up.

* * *

"So, sis. Where's your alien faunus ninja new friend?"

Ruby let her gaze fall. "I don't know Yang, I didn't see him. Maybe he decided he didn't want to come."

She felt Yang's arm on her shoulders. "Aw! Come on! It's Beacon! Everybody wants to go there. He's probably just lost, Vale's a big town."

"Yeah, but what if he really don't want to come? He'll be alone. That's not right."

"I thought he had a robot friend with him?"

"Well, yeah, but she's blocked in his scroll, plus they don't know Remnant. What if they get attacked by Grimms? They don't know what it is."

Yang gave her a pat on the back. "Relax, you worry too much! Look, I'm sure they'll be here in a second, okay?"

"Wait!" As if to give her sister reason she saw Sapphire jump from a roof and catch a streetlamp before hitting the ground with a roll and run toward them without slowing down. He came to a skidding halt once he passed the door.

"Hey Sapphire." She waved to him

"Uh, guess he really does look like a girl." There was a mighty bang as Sapphire's head met an iron table that had not been there half a second ago. A whimper of wounded feelings echoed.

"Yang! That's not something to say!"

Yang took a step back, raising her arms in a mock surrender. "Geez, sorry. You're not gonna introduce me?"

Ruby perked up at that. "Right! Yang, this is Sapphire. Sapphire, this is my sister Yang."

He extended a hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Yang caught it. "Right back at you. Say, my sis told me you had a girl in your phone?"

"Yes, but Ritsu's navigating the CCT so she's not here right now."

"Oh. Guess I'll meet her later. Are you really an alien ninja?"

Hey! Yang had said she believed her.

"Well, I guess I am. I wouldn't word it like that though."

Ruby took a step forward. "Say, I didn't get to ask the other day, but what weapon do you use?"

"You better just tell her, once she start you can't get her to stop." Hey that was mean!

"Hum," He pointed to his arsenal. "I've got knives, this rifle, a pistol, a taser and a stun-baton."

Awesome! People with more than one weapon at a time were few, more than two was rare and so many at once was almost unheard of. "Can I see the knives?"

"I... Guess." He carefully handed her one of them. Ooh, it looked like a jewel! The level of detail on the snake! And the sharpness!

"How did you make it?!"

"It was a gift. Can you, not drool on it please? It's freaking me out."

Yang gave him a pat on the back that sent him tumbling. "You should see her at the annual new weapon exhibit. Last time we had to haul her out while she clung to the showcase."

"Hey! I'm not that bad! Just, a little enthusiast." She decided to ignore her sister's deadpan stare. "Anyway, what's their name?"

"Their names?" No, no he didn't just say that!

"You know, the name you gave them when you got them."

"They don't have one."

"Oh boy." Yang sighed

"What do you mean they don't have one? They are your weapons, extensions of yourself, when people talk about you they talk about them too. How can you not give them a name?"

He scratched his cheek. "I guess it didn't really come around, on earth most weapons don't have a name since the middle ages."

What?! How was it possible? "Then we're going to change that! I'll help you find a name for them too, if you want."

He took a step back. "Erm. Thanks, I guess."

"See, to find the perfect name for a weapon it needs to mean something to you, but also reflect you and what you see in your weapon." She took her sweetheart from her back. "See, mine's called Crescent Rose. And Yang's are called Amber Celica. Now what do you think about when you look at your knives?"

Sapphire held the blade before his face. "I..." He gulped. "I see the tip sinking in my teacher's hearts, the moon high above me."

Yang took a step forward. "Uh, Sapphire? Calm down. Please, you're scaring Ruby."

Yeah, he was breathing faster and faster, his eyes were starting to glow and his hair fluttered like two little wings.

"The beam falling from the sky, Takaoka-sensei begging for his life, the broken moon shining in the sky. The antidote exploding, kill him, make him suffer. Korose."

The air became heavy, Ruby's grip on her sweetheart tightened, something was not right, he looked like a wounded animal, ready to pounce at the slightest movement.

"No. Stay calm, they're fine, Smog changed the poison. They're safe, I need to calm down, you're right Terasaka. Stay calm Nagisa, they're okay, I need to calm down." His eyes stopped glowing and his hair fell back, his respiration coming in ragged breaths. He took a big inspiration, seemingly calming down.

Ruby cautiously approached him. "Are you alright?"

"Kudaketa Tsuki."

"What?"

"Their name, it means broken moon."

"Think you could tell us what just happened? Cause it was a little freaky to be honest." Yang asked.

"I... I was... Remembering something."

"Oh! You wanna talk about it?"

"No, it's okay. Some things are better left untouched."

Ruby could see so much pain in his eyes, it reminded her of the time her mother died, so she did what her father had done to lift her spirit.

"Erm... Ruby? What are you doing?"

She took a step back. "You looked like you needed a hug."

Suddenly her feet left the ground, and two strong arms were trying to turn her ribs into dust. "Oh, my sister is finally breaking out of her shell! I'm so proud of you!"

"Please stop."

She heard sister laugh in her ear. "But it's true! You finally made a friend."

"Hey! I can make friends!"

"The teachers and uncle Qrow don't count."

"There is-"

"Zwei doesn't count either."

"Excuse me?" They both turned toward Sapphire. "Am I missing something?"

"Nah! Ruby just has to learn to socialize more!"

He turned toward her. "But you didn't seem to have a problem the other day."

"Yeah, but we were fighting.. It's easier like that." And it so was, slicing a grimm in half or beating a thug to the ground was much less awkward than small talk.

"Sis, you really need to work on that."

"If I may, I don't think it will be a problem." Sapphire said.

"Why not? Ruby's gonna be in a team like everybody. She'll have to make friends."

"I'll just be in yours."

"It will not be a problem because, from what I gathered, battle should be an important point of the curriculum. And the best way to learn how to do something is by doing it, starting from what we can already do."

Wow, Ruby knew he was going to teach them, she didn't tell Yang, it was a surprise. But only now did she understand how good at this he was going to be. Uncle Qrow's teaching was a lot like what he described: start from what you have and build on it. That and a lot of drunken advices.

"Wow, that's deep. I can see why Ruby likes you. Kick ass and wise guy. I'm sure we're gonna get along great."

Sapphire blinked a few times. "Er, I guess."

"And speaking of kicking ass! Did you hear about this new vigilante guy."

"Yes..." Wow, he didn't seem that thrilled.

"Well, listen, our dad has a friend in the police who sent him a message. He says it's possible the Beacon students will get to join on the chases from time to time to get experience."

Sapphire winced slightly. "Is it not dangerous? We don't know much about them so they could be really dangerous, even more so for trainees like us."

"Relax, he said the guy was probably not gonna be a danger to people. Apparently he could have killed everybody in the building, so if he didn't, then it mean he's not gonna just go and butcher anybody. Plus, we're gonna be huntresses, I'm sure we can take him on."

Sapphire's head fell slightly, just enough for his eyes to be masked by the shadow. "My teacher would have had a fit. You should never underestimate your enemies, a good killer always keeps his hand hidden until the last moment. For all somebody can look friendly they might be cruel and ruthless."

Wow, was it her or did the room just get chillier?

She startled as his head rose, his face serious as a grave. "You don't know anything about this Nehebkau, never assume just because they didn't do anything yet they will not do something worse."

"Sheesh, talk about gloomy. What make you think I'm not taking him seriously?"

"Because I have been in this exact situation. And I have the scars to remind me of it. Please, don't make the same error as me."

"Oh." Yes, oh. He had vaguely mentioned a few times his class has almost died the other day, but he had given them the short version, by his own admission. And now, facing him as the bullhead lifted off, Ruby understood something: if there ever really existed people anybody could look up to, then Sapphire, who managed to keep his smile despite all he apparently had gone through, was one of them.

* * *

Sapphire took in a long breath, too close, the conversation had gone too close to things he tried to come to terms with. For a moment he was stabbing Koro-sensei and fighting Takaoka-sensei again. And the subject of his own celebrity had been really awkward.

He took a look around him, the sisters were still where he had let them. This engine was incredible, as far as he knew earth simply didn't have airships such as these. Actually, he had lied to the girls: Ritsu was not in the CCT but examining the ship's system, but telling somebody an artificial intelligence was poking at the vehicle they were in was probably not a good idea. He scanned the crowd, most of the future students seemed at ease, apart from a boy turning green by the window. Vertigo or motion sickness probably. He could do something about that.

He took a step forward, remembering what he learned about those in class, Koro-sensei had really wanted to be sure they would be good when he transported them, vertigo and motion sickness were comparable to a small panic in a situation the brain could not fully make sense of. As such, managing to keep calm helped to make it pass and get over it. So he gently approached the blond and delicately pressed at the matsukazé.

"Is it better?"

The boy sighed. "Yeah, thanks. Wait, who are you?"

He extended his hand. "Sapphire Nagisa. Nice to meet you."

The boy took his hand. "Same here, my name is Jaune, Jaune Arc. Sweet, short, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."

Sapphire sweatdropped. "Do you intend to introduce yourself like that to everyone?"

Jaune put a hand to his neck. "Well, hum. I guess?"

"Don't, it doesn't seem to fit you."

"Why would you say that? We only met less than a minute ago."

"Because you're clearly not at ease with that. I had a classmate who was a womanizer and believe me, you don't act like him." Maehara was more subtle, he started by getting an idea of what the girl liked and then started flirting by socializing over what they shared, adapting his strategy every time.

Jaune slumped. "I guess you're right. Hey, aren't you that girl who jumped over the buildings the other day?"

There was an echoing bang.

"Where does the table come from?"

"I'm a boy." Sapphire whimpered.

"Oh, sorry, I really didn't know, it's just you look like a girl and..."

"Please, stop."

"Right, hum, sorry. So, how did you do that? With me getting better I mean."

"I just helped you to calm down."

"Well, thanks again. So, about the building jumping?"

"Yes, I was. Why?"

"I just thought it was pretty cool, where did you learn to do that?"

"In my class. But I'm almost sure there will be lessons about it at Beacon this year." Or at least he intended to give those if they were not already part of the course, free-running was one of the best ways to help somebody learn to use their environment the best they could, with the added bonus of a good workout.

"Yeah, that would be nice."

* * *

 **For acts speak louder than words,**

 **In this brand new world.**

 **Even if you do not seek fame,**

 **They shall learn your name**

* * *

 _ **Hello people! Still alive, with excuses to give and an explanations as to my delay.**_

 _ **First the stats: stare at the stats, stats stare back, you know the drill, I know it too. 85 reviews, 306 follows and 249 favorites for 12487 views, I have more than doubled every stats since ast chapter. You people must make your parents proud for how much you rock.**_

 _ **For the delay: My computer fucking agonized for the three month following the last chapter, stopping me from working correctly, it died amonth before I got my new computer so I had to rewrite this chapter's beginning from nothing, and the last month was a fight of everyday between this chapter, another story (threnody of the graveyard), another idea and university.**_

 _ **About this chapter: Remnant's mythology will be similar to ours because it is never really touched in the show, but it will have a different origin. I tried to give a more lighthearted atmosphere, cue lot of bad jokes and references. The names. Eh. I like them but he'll probably get others so feel free to suggest some. What happened to Sapphire with the knives is the first symptom of PTSD, because this guy is already messed up in cannon and he's gonna get a lot more baggage here. Finally, Jaune: I'm trying to show how much of a difference Sapphire is making just by being here, no Vomit boy this time.**_

 _ **Finally: Matt, you're forgiven, thanks for apologizing. Please comment, I would really like for this paragraph to become a running gag. But more friendly.**_

 _ **Review, follow, favorite! Fear the pillar man tailor!**_


	5. Welcome home

He watched one of his counterpart sleeping in the mass of broken weapons they had forged.

He watched his other counterpart trashing against its chains.

Nope, pretty standard Tuesday. Maybe he could fetch the companion to play a game?

* * *

The aircraft touched down with a small sound of metal against metal as the ramp connected with the docks.

Jaune whistled next to him and Sapphire nodded in kind, the place was impressive. And actually a really defensible position: using the pillars as cover would offer a circular line of defense and flying lead against any attacker, the arches the perfect place to install sniper nests. With the water circles the only easy way would be the main path, a few mines placed here and there would transform it into a real bottleneck made of corpses and rubble. The towers could be tweaked a little to instal more snipers and some heavy artillery at the tops and windows to take care of any aerial support. Place a decoy control room at the top of the central tower to draw the enemy, poison the water and the whole place would become an almost impregnable fortress, the only option then would be a siege or a top notch assassin.

"I'm back!" Jaune and him both jumped a little.

"Oh, hi Ritsu. Found something interesting?"

"Yes! I can say with an absolute certitude that they have the technology for me to make a functional mobile platform."

"Really?"

"Really!"

"Then I know what we're going to do from now on." He was going to see with Junior to install a fully automatic workshop for Ritsu to use in one of the numerous empty rooms under the Den. Which meant finding the resources would be a priority. He had told her he was going to support her like she did him and he was going to keep his promise to the best of his ability if it was the last thing he did.

"I think I'm missing something here."

"Er, sorry. Jaune, this is Ritsu, she's a dear friend of mine. Ritsu, this is Jaune, we met on the way."

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I am sorry for not introducing myself sooner. I hope we will get along." Ritsu said, waving from the scroll.

"Yeah, I hope so too. Erm, are you a robot?"

"An AI to be precise, I am for all intent and purpose a human in mind and spirit. The appellation robot designates an automatic device able to interact with objects or executes operations following a program and as such is too vague."

"Oh, cool."

The sound of a small crash drew Sapphire's attention to his right. There was Ruby, on the ground, getting lectured by a girl in white, bags laying around her. He sighed, a small accident and somebody just blew it out of proportion, some things didn't change no matter the world. Was it Dust in the girl's hand? That she was shaking? With some leaking out?

His mind flashed back to the book the clerk from 'Dust till Dawn' had given him, specifically to a page speaking about Dust's properties. More precisely, to the captions of 'extremely volatile and sensible', highlighted, in bold italic and _underlined three times in red_.

His eyes widened. Damn it! He started running.

Ruby started to inhale, ready to sneeze, he accelerated.

"Get down!" He caught both girls by the shoulders and tackled them to the ground under him just as Ruby sneezed.

The dust blew up, pain exploding in his back as it was simultaneously burned, shocked and pierced by shards of ice.

He shakily rose back to his feet, trickles of blood oozing from his exposed neck. He wobbled a little, his ears ringing, it hurt, but less than it would have if he had been up. And his soon to be students were untouched so all was good.

"And who do you think you are?"

"What?" He just saved her from a painful explosion, why was she angry at him?

"Do you have any idea who I am? Do you often tackle people like that?"

"Well, there was..."

"And don't you think you're a little young to be here?" She pointed to Ruby. "Both of you?"

"Actually..."

"It's not your run of the mill combat school. Here, they train the elite to fight monsters. So stop acting like a child." She turned to Ruby. "And watch where you're going."

"Well, I'm s..." He raised an arm to interrupt Ruby. He liked to think of himself as somebody tolerant, able to take in what people told him without overreacting. But that girl had pressed two of his buttons. First, his friends were precious to him, he had lost enough as it was. Second and most importantly, you never, under any circumstance belittled and looked down on your comrades, never.

He opened lightly the dam restraining his blood-lust to a bearable level, just enough to put weight in his words, watching as she suddenly gulped and the wavelength of her consciousness indicated she was more than receptive enough.

When he spoke it was in a soft voice, almost a whisper. "Ruby already told you she was sorry. You give lessons on how we should act, yet you behave like a spoiled child yourself . You will be fighting alongside the other students here, in a battle, there is either trust... Or death. There is no place for grudges and ego. As for why I tackled you?" He chuckled, devoid of any humor, and turned around, gesturing at the blood and burns. " If I hadn't, you two would have been the ones bleeding, and not just from the back. Now we said we were sorry. Are you ready to accept it?"

"I don't... Why do you... Who do you think I am?"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellants in the world." A new girl in black said, a slight tint of venom in her voice, too light for anybody else to hear, but to Sapphire it was clear as day. Weiss would not get the admiration she seemed to wait. And the Schnee Dust Company? He was not impressed, birth right was not worthy of respect and with a record track like the one Junior had briefly explained... You didn't want to boast about it.

"Finally, some recognition." She glared at them and he raised an eyebrow. From the corner of his eye, he could see Jaune listening to everything, Ritsu still in his hand. And apparently laughing in mute.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." Ah, the venom grew heavier.

"What? How dar..."

"With half the underworld of the planet gunning for its CEO and most of the judiciary officials getting a more than generous bribe." He added, you did not boast making a fortune that way, you simply didn't.

She took off almost running, looking more than a little pissed. He'd have to do something about that.

He turned to the girl in black just as she turned away. "Thank you."

She rose an eyebrow. "You're welcome."

Now he turned to a whole new source of headaches, namely the two butlers picking up the white bags. He sent a look at Ruby, Jaune introducing himself to her, without pickup line, and started walking toward the men.

 ** _(For an optimal experience, the author recommend listening to 'Haritsume ta kuuki', the version uploaded by animarthur on YouTube.)_**

"Stop that please."

"What did you say kid?" Clear and concise, with a drop of condescension well hidden under his speech. Easy to play

"I asked you to let those bags where they are."

"And on what authority?"

Time to play his cards right. "On the authority of a member of Beacon staff."

The man lightly huffed. "Lying is bad child. Do you have any idea of who my employer is?"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the company of the same name, one of my students, and as such, as long as we are on the grounds of the academy, my authority outstrips hers." Thank you for the explanation on the political games Isogai.

"I told you to stop lying. As if a child like you could be a teacher here."

"Actually, I am. Sapphire Nagisa, instructor of the optional classes on the ground of my expertise in a field of study not covered by the curriculum until now. If you doubt my word I would like to redirect you to my hierarchical superior, the professor Ozpin, headmaster of this institution."

The butler scoffed. "And what proof do we have that you're not trying to steal miss Schnee's resources?" Aah, the good part, the easy part.

He swiftly put his hand against the man's throat, never changing his expression, and pressed a finger against his carotid as he let loose a little more bloodlust than with Weiss. "The grounds are entirely covered by a network of cameras. And if I wanted to steal resources already provided by the Establishment, believe me, I would have just taken it from of your corpse's hands." A bluff, but the man had no need to know it. What Sapphire needed was not to make friends in this situation, but to prove his authority in such a way those men would report to their true boss, tail between their legs, that as long as he was here, he was going to help all of his students, including the daughter of said boss and the man had no say in it whatsoever.

"Don't think you can just get your way like that. Our superior has connections!" Ah, a slip of the tongue, the men's wavelength of consciousness was a mess and it showed, they had let out their true affiliation: not the heiress, her father.

"So do I. Do you want to see how his company can get back up with the three quarters of his workers on strike with financial back up?" Not a bluff this time, contact the company's rivals through Junior's connections, put the less legal sides of the company's statistics in the good hands, eliminate the mercenary companies' heads and he just had to say the word. Supported by his new reputation and the growing dissatisfaction of the workers, the strike would be colossal. Jacques Schnee would have to make more than a few concessions to prevent his empire from falling like a house of cards.

"You're bluffing!"

He smiled, more like showing his teeth. "Do you really want to try me?" Keep the pressure, let your opponent believe you could do worse than you would and they would slowly break. And those men were breaking, hard.

"We could have you fired!"

"So you believe me now? And no, you can't: mister Schnee doesn't have any power over whom the headmaster chooses to employ. Now let me ask again, do you really want to see what I can do?"

The men stammered.

Sapphire nodded. "I thought so too. Now I would like you to pass a message to your boss." This time he leaked more bloodlust, enough to make them choke in surprise. "Tell him that as long as his daughter is one of my students, I will help her, even if I have to go against his wishes. And if he ever tries to interfere, then it will be war. Am I clear?" He sniffed, one of them was apparently more afraid than he thought.

They turned around, almost running. "You will regret that!"

"Less than you." It felt strange to be the one putting his foot down, strange but not unpleasant, it was a reminder of the freedom of choice he now held, hammering down the fact he was now the one with students to help and protect. From their own family if need be and from what he knew of Jacques Schnee through Junior, the man sounded awfully like his mother in less loving. So he would personally make sure the man would not interfere, starting by taking his eyes at Beacon out of the equation.

"Wow child, you sure ripped these snobs a new one." He turned to his left, to the old man in uniform.

"Sorry you had to see that. Erm, you are?"

"I'm Ash, janitor extraordinaire. It's my job to make sure everything goes as it should here. Including bringing the new students' stuff to their lockers and these bastards were all full of themselves stealing my job. So you're the kid Ozpin and Glynda are debating over?"

He blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You know? Part time teacher, part time student? Glynda's been drilling a lot of holes in that. Eh, as if the guy ever does anything without thinking of twelves other alternatives. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for putting those guys in their places. Here's my scroll number, it's the only way to find me if I'm not the one coming to you. Don't tell the other kids about me, see you later!"

Before he could say anything, Sapphire was staring at empty space, a number scribbled on a bit of paper in his hand. What?

* * *

When he joined Ruby, Jaune and Ritsu it was to find Jaune presenting his weapons and Ruby and Ritsu commenting on the specifics. A drop of cold sweat rolled down his neck, knowing Ritsu's love for overkill, the year would be quite hazardous for his health.

"You know, you're going in the wrong direction." He called.

"Nagisa! How is your back?" Ritsu called.

"Better than it could have been, but I will have to find somebody to help me tend to it." The slow flow of blood has almost stopped, but he could feel the raw flesh rubbing against his clothes where it had been burned.

Ruby was suddenly before him. "Why didn't you activate your aura? It should have healed better by now."

Activate? "What do you mean activate?" Sapphire asked.

"You don't know how to do it? But it's the first thing you lea... Oh! Right." She flushed a little. "You have to activate your aura, it's mostly instinctive but my uncle told me some people have problems with that. Imagine your soul, like a vest. You have to put it on for it to work. And it will heal you. I guess? He was drunk."

So, like covering himself in bloodlust? He let it seep around him, concentrating it in his back. He felt something itching where he was hurt. Ruby and Jaune gasped.

"Is there a problem?"

Jaune blinked. "Okay, what was that? There was a freaky snake around you just now. Creepy."

"It's not supposed to work like that. Normally the wound just heals and you... Molded? I mean, you grew scales and they fell and now you're healed but..." Ruby tried to explain/

"Do you mean molted?" Ritsu asked.

"Yeah, that!"

He passed a hand over his back, finding only smooth skin where the wounds were a second ago, his fingers bumped against something stuck in a fold of his vest. When he brought it before his eyes, he saw a translucent blue scale, thin as a nail, showing small streaks of blood inside. Try as he might he could not identify the material. He put it in his pouch, not batting an eyelash as he heard it hitting the box at the bottom.

"Mystery for another time." Sapphire decided. "We are going to be late."

"Right! Now where are we?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know, I was following you." Jaune answered.

"The door is that way." Ritsu helpfully pointed.

* * *

Yang watched as Ruby entered the room. Yes! Her plan had worked, her little sister had made a new friend. She called her over.

"Hey little sis, how's the day going?" Ooh, she was pouting!

"Before or after you ditched me and I almost exploded?" Just almost? She was making progress.

"It can't have been that bad."

"Yes, it was: I almost exploded, but Sapphire saved me and the other girl, then that crabby girl started to yell at us like we did something bad and I've got lost."

Yang rose an eyebrow. "Really?"

"You!" She got her arms full of a little sister. "You're lucky we weren't blown over the cliff's edge!" Huh, what do you know, that girl really was crabby.

"Oh my god, it really was that bad." Yang realized.

"I told you!"

The girl shoved a folder at Ruby's face.

"Now, if you want thing to be better between us, you're going to read this then pass it to that crazy girl in blue." There was a bang on the other side of the room.

"He's a boy actually." Ruby pointed.

"And I don't care. Just read that and never speak to me again."

Now that would not do. "Hey, it looks like you started on the wrong foot. I'm sure you can be friends, so why don't you just turn over a new leaf, okay?" Yang offered with a winning smile.

And Ruby, enthusiast best little sister that she was, tried to do just that. Awkward as ever, but better than not trying at all. And that girl was a pain alright, playing with her sister's feelings like that.

Then the headmaster started a speech about how they were just wasting their energy and cryptic advice. And Goodwitch told them to get in the ballroom tonight and be ready for the ballroom.

"He reminds me of Sapphire, like there's something off: like he's not really there." She whispered to Ruby.

Then Ruby's new blond friend came. "You were not serious were you?" He asked Weiss.

"No. How did you guess?" She answered curtly.

"Well, you were pretty mean in the courtyard."

"Rhetorical question, you idiot."

From the corner of her eye Yang saw the headmaster coming to Sapphire. "Would you please come to my office?"

* * *

The office was impressive, sparsely furnished, gears turning in intricate patterns along the walls and ceiling and a window opening to a breathtaking view of the school grounds.

"You wanted to see us?" Sapphire asked.

"Indeed. There are some things we need to talk about."

"We're listening." Ritsu said.

The headmaster made a small gesture of his hand and a screen appeared over his desk, displaying two clearly terrified butlers yelling at him.

"I received the unpleasant visit of two employees of the Schnee Dust Company complaining about a member of my staff assaulting them to steal the property of their employer." There was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "I do not doubt these accusations were preposterous and the problem resolved itself when these gentlemen remembered they lacked the authorization to be present on this property. Yet in the case you would indeed come to try and... Dispose of them, I would like to remind you to avoid giving more work to our overworked janitor, he recently complained about the difficulty of washing blood."

"I will try?"

"Excellent. On a more serious note, I would like to express my approval as to your handling of the situation. Parental interference is a great cause of worry in our field of work."

Nagisa bowed his head. "Thank you professor."

"Now, you are not without knowing of the initiation taking place before the lessons begin. I want you to know I fully expect you two to succeed and as such I wish to know what you have decided to do in the lessons you will give."

"Actually, we counted on using the initiation to get an idea as to the individual strengths and weaknesses of the students and act accordingly. But we're at least going to try to get them to learn how to put their bloodlust to use the same way we've learned." Ritsu explained.

"Bloodlust, you say? Hmm, I have come across such a thing a few times. Indeed, I can see how it would benefit them. Then I will trust you two with it."

"Thank you, headmaster." They both said at the same time.

"Please, just professor. Now on to another subject of worry. I have learned you had troubles with using the passive protection of aura. You will understand how it might have me worried. When an individual encounter such problems it is generally caused by one of two reasons: either they lack the raw power needed for it, which you have, or they actively repress it. Is there something you would wish to share with me?"

Sapphire inhaled deeply, that was not something he wished to talk about for the foreseeable future. He stared in the headmaster's brown eyes, filled with a wish to help he had only seen in people hurt deeper than most would ever imagine, individuals like his teachers and Matsukata-san who had all faced hardship greater than any should have and had risen above it.

"I'm sorry professor, but I am not ready to talk about that yet."

"I understand. But please, if you ever need to talk about anything, my door will always be open. To both of you."

Taking the end of the conversation for what it was, Sapphire went back to the elevator, thanking the headmaster.

The door was almost closed when the professor added one last thing.

"Oh, and good job with the Golden Skulls."

It took the rest of the way down for Ritsu to calm him again.

* * *

He didn't sleep in the hall with the other that night, rather, he climbed the dormitory building until his feet rested on the flat roof. He needed some time away with Ritsu and his memories, to think about where they were going with the situation, twirling one of the scales he had shed in his hand. What happened in the aircraft had been... It had been terrifying and exhilarating, terrifying because he knew without the shadow of a doubt he'd have killed anybody coming too close to him had he not snapped out of it, and exhilarating because he knew too that he'd have been able to take down everybody on the ship. They were competent fighters, but none of them were close to Karasuma-sensei's level and he was an assassin, he did not play fair, he used every resource at his disposition, every dirty trick in the playbook, and he used them to kill. Should he go off the deep end, then there would be a mountain of corpses before he was stopped, it was not overconfidence: just hard and cold truth. He needed a fail-safe.

"Nagisa, what you're asking... It's just..." Ritsu trailed off, more for his ability to read her than a real need he knew. "I'm not sure I want to do it."

"Please Ritsu," He pleaded. "It's just a precaution, if I have any say in it, then you won't ever have to use it, it's just..." He sighed. "I want to be sure I won't put them in danger, to know there is someone I trust, ready to stop me if it comes to that. We've just..." His voice wavered. "We've already lost so much, the class, Karasuma-sensei, Bitch-sensei, K-Koro-sensei, I-I don't..." Silent tears started rolling down his cheeks. "I don't want to lose anybody else, I d-don't want to kill a-another person I c-care about. H-he congratulated us a-and I... I killed him a-and he... I..." Then the weight of all that had transpired in the last two weeks came crashing on his shoulders and he broke down crying. He cried like he had never cried before. He cried for his mother, whom he had left behind, he cried for each of his classmates whom he would probably never see again, he cried for his teachers who had guided him, he cried for Ritsu who had been dragged alongside him, he cried for Koro-sensei who had believed in him and, for the first time in his life, he cried for himself.

And for hours on end he cried under the white moon, so familiar yet so alien, until his eyes were dry and warm blood gently oozed down his painful throat. He cried for a past now gone and an uncertain present. He cried for a better tomorrow. And he cried until he fell on the hard tiles of the roof, sleep finally catching up to him.

And as the dark embraced him, he heard her voice utter two words.

"Goodnight Nagisa"

* * *

From his office's window, Ozpin watched his youngest employee howling in a pain the like of which he had wished he would never see again. And when Sapphire fell asleep outdoor, the headmaster took the time to discreetly bring him a thin blanket.

And he resolved again to always be there for his students, to always be ready to do all he could to save them from themselves.

* * *

Miles around the city, beasts of shadow and death raised their head to the moon and howled. The young ones rushed toward the origin of the so attractive wave of calling. The old ones roared in challenge before once again fading in the darkness.

And deep below the land, under its prison of stone, a beast like no other opened its burning red eyes. Soon would come the time of fly, but until that time would come it slowly returned to its rest. Soon it would answer to the wave. Until then it slept. In its house under the mountain, dead the Beast would wait dreaming.

* * *

In a clearing deep in the forest, in a place no other man had seen in decades, an old man let out a wheezing laugh and rose his wizened hand from the armrest of his wooden wheelchair.

"Did you feel it too, old friend?" He asked the figure at his size, receiving no answer as his lips cracked from a smile, blood trickling from the small wounds.

"Aah, I wish you could talk sometimes. How long it has been since we started waiting. And now it is finally time to remember."

He raised his hand and the small object that had appeared three days ago. "Would you be a dear and bring that where they can find it?"

* * *

"Nagisa. Wake up, it's time."

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the white shards of the moon hanging in all their majesty a little over the horizon, opposite to the sun peeking over the horizon. Ah, it was already dawn.

He wiped the dried tears on his cheeks and chin with his sleeve. He felt... Empty? No, not empty: hollow. He felt hollow, and somehow, knowing that, he felt better: hollow was how he felt before the class filled him with a reason to go forward. Now, in his own personal second life, he was ready to take a new reason to rise above what he was and what he had been.

"Good morning Ritsu." Was it really his voice he heard echoing in the empty courtyard several floors below? It sounded so much more confidant than it had a few months earlier, calm and composed. A voice of someone commanding respect. He had never thought he would hear a voice like that coming out of his own mouth.

"Good morning." Hm? He could see her consciousness' wavelength. He had never been able to read Ritsu like the rest of the world around him, her every expression and small gesture controlled to an inhuman level had always been what she wanted to show and had always put him on edge ever so slightly, the uncanny valley's effect she had explained a few months ago. But now he could see the minute movements even she could not stop, barely pixels switching in less than a second. Now that he could see her for what she was in her whole being, he understood why a lot of the other boys found her cute. Somewhere in the back of his consciousness, he felt more than he heard something shifting, like the purr of a cat under a Kotatsu.

"Ritsu?"

"Yes?"

He smiled at the moon as he felt the hollowness be filled a little. "Thank you, for everything."

He heard her chuckle and he could almost see her eyes twinkle. "You're welcome."

Then Sapphire opened his arms wide and let himself fall over the edge. The wind roared in his ears as he angled himself to be parallel with the wall, he caught the first window sill in his hands and used his movement to slam his feet against the wall, then used his grip to launch himself at a gutter and slid down toward the ground.

He weaved nimbly between the few early risers on his way to the common bathroom, he really needed a shower.

When he finally found it the sun was almost entirely visible over the horizon, the place was a maze in and on itself, dotted with coffee machines in the most incongruous places.

While the room was admittedly nice, with a separate dressing room and enough place for a dozen people to shower at the same time, it was mildly off-putting to see how bare it was compared to the common baths he was used to, not enough to make him uncomfortable, but enough to make him raise an eyebrow.

Still, it was nice to have a second to really let all the tension he had accumulated in the past few days... A part of the tension... A really tiny part. His eyes became blank, where did he go wrong with his life?

Anyway, he made sure to profit of every last droplet of warm water hitting his temporarily loose hair and running down his skin and against the towel he'd put around his waist by habit.

A thorough and vaguely relaxing shower later he reentered the dressing room.

"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full twenty four hours!"

And shrieked as a mop of orange hair attached to someone _who hadn't been there half a second before_ whistled less than an inch away from his nose. He put a hand on the wall to stay standing while his other flew to his chest in an attempt to calm the samba his heart had chosen to dance.

"Hey, what are you doing in the boy's shower?"

His eyes became milky white as he took in what the _girl_ before him said. "That's my line!"

"I'm here to support Ren on our first morning at Beacon! Right, Ren?"

The boy behind her sighed. "Yes, Nora. But could you, please, wait outside? Just this time?"

She fell on her knees, tears starting to run down her cheeks. "You don't want me here?"

"No Nora, but some people have problems with somebody of the other sex being in the same room when they shower."

She perked up with a sound a little too close to a squeaky toy for his sanity and turned to him. "Right! Come on, Ren's embarrassed."

Cold and hard iron greeted his forehead on the way down, why? Why did everybody take him for a girl, even when he was almost naked? "I'm a boy." It really hurt, even more so taking into account he had gained quite a lot of muscle in a year. Oh, not at the level of an athlete or Karma, granted, but enough to have the outlines easily visible. He sobbed a little harder, why did people think he was a girl?

"Ooh! Really?" Nora asked.

"Yes!" He sobbed before coating his forehead with a little bloodlust and aura, making the scratches disappear under falling scales.

"Then I'm off! Later!" And she disappeared through the door.

"I'm sorry about that, she doesn't mean harm." The other boy, Ren, said.

Sapphire sighed. "I know, it just happens more often than I'd like. Oh!" He extended his hand with a smile. "My name is Sapphire, it's nice to meet you."

The other boy took his hand."My name is Ren."

Then Nora called for Ren to hurry and Sapphire suddenly remembered he only wore a towel.

As far as first impression went, this one must have been a strange one.

* * *

 _"Papa bear, who am I talking to?"_

Sapphire blinked. "Junior?"

He heard the man clear his throat. _"You heard nothing. Anyway, why are you calling?"_

"I wanted to ask if everything was good on your side with the testimonies about Garden."

 _"Yeah, the hospital let the guys go this morning after a health check, just a light case of scurvy easily treated. They testified and we managed to send the cops on a wild goose chase about you, they're searching for an albino cobra faunus and we don't have that in Vale so you don't have to worry about troubling someone else. So, Beacon. Impressive, right?"_

He smiled. "Very. Did you get what we sent you yesterday?"

 _"Yeah, most of the things on that list will be pretty pretty easy to get, even legally, what with Signal encouraging their students to get their own workshop. I think we can get those with the money we'll get from Garden's trial, but we've got a few things needing more... Specialized contacts. A computer with that much processing power don't run the streets so either we hijack the comm tower and back to square one or I can try getting the plan on the annual black market command in six weeks. The problem is: the currency there is not lien, you want something you need to do a something for the guy with it and the only ones with that are the Atlas black ops. Their prices are more or less ethical, but absurdly hard to meet."_

A governmental black ops unit...

"Could you try to arrange a meeting with them?" Ritsu asked. "We at least need to know what we get into."

 _"I still have their contact somewhere from last time. In any case, we'll need some special hardwares reserved to scroll makers. I know a small gang dealing those kinda things and if we play our cards right, it won't cost us anything."_

"Really?"

 _"Yep, they've got turf problems with another gang. A new one, barely three weeks old, but they're drug dealers so they're armed and our guys are not. Catch my drift?"_

 _"_ We take care of their rivals and invite them to join us?" Sapphire asked.

 _"Exactly, the ghosts in the machines, I know their name sucks, but they say it's a joke between them, are barely more than a dozen and the only reason they've stayed neutral until now was because nobody saw an interest in trying to get them. Good people, they often stop here to take a beer and they often talk about how much the White Fang's and Torchwick's networks are pushing them around now, so an offer of protection from a vigilante and a chance to get jobs offer through another network? They'll jump on the occasion."_

"And the other gang?"

 _"That's where it gets ugly, not hard mind you, but ugly. Most of them are kids from the slum trying to get a little money to eat tomorrow. Generally, I try to get these kids in the Den or that maid cafe we're working with, but these last years kids didn't trust me to keep them safe. So we can try to get them to join us, but we'll need to cut the problem at the source."_

"Which is?" Ritsu asked.

 _"White Mouse, it's an alias, but his real identity was compromised years ago, so he doesn't use it anymore. He works as an intermediary for Mistral's various drug cartels as a smuggler. You send him rotting in a cell and the drugs can't come in Vale for a few months, long enough for the gang to dispel."_

"Can't we try to recruit him?"

 _"He previously worked in human and faunus traffic, specifically sex slaves."_ Junior's tone sent chills down his spine. _"He's nasty enough for Vale's underground to put a hefty bounty on his head after the police failed to get him in a raid three years ago. The bastard's paranoiac enough to have multiple intermediary, change his base every week and have them as covered in camera as Beacon. The only reason we managed to find out who he was is because he let his 'personal maid' behind in his escape if you see what I mean."_

Oh, he saw. And he desperately wished he didn't, a 'personal maid' was the polite way of saying sex slave among assassins and informants.

"Please tell me she was not..."

 _"She was. That pig had decided to keep the best of the lot for himself, a sixteen years old orphan dog faunus. It was the only time the Chief and the new White Fang cooperated on something. White Mouse escaped, nothing else remains of that cartel, absolutely nothing. And now he's starting shit again."_

"Not for long." Was it really his voice? It was so cold. "We have free time tomorrow afternoon, to resupply our equipment after the initiation today. I want everything you can find on his whereabouts when we get in town."

 _"Yeah, let me rile you up a little more. The drugs? Highly addictive and mortal in a third of the cases. And he got the kids working for him hooked on it to keep them loyal. The age range goes from twenty years old, unemployed peoples to thirteen years old rebel teenagers. How's that for a kick?"_

His knuckles went white against his scroll and Ritsu's background turned to a thunderstorm and it was all he could do to stop his bloodlust from flooding the cliff he's waiting on. "Please make sure my work outfit is finished as soon as possible."

 _"Already done, why do you think we go to him despite the mental scarring?"_

"We will call you back later." Ritsu said.

He started to play with his knife. Grimms were going to regret crossing his path during the initiation.

* * *

 _ **A new role,**_

 _ **A new home,**_

 _ **A new caretaker,**_

 _ **A new purpose**_

 _ **And a new**_ **target.**

* * *

 _ **Hello people. Why are you late? You ask. Because I had other stories, then exams, then the new semester kicked my ass for the first two weeks, then another week of writing and here it is.**_

 _ **Next one is the initiation, I have plans, it will come faster.**_

 _ **Now the... Lose consciousness, wake up the next morning. 122 reviews, 419 follows, 337 favorites and 19910 views. Half more than last chapters. I don't know what to say, what happened to that story supposed to make a flop?**_

 _ **About this chapter: mostly situation building.**_

 _ **-You didn't expect Sapphire to really be okay after all that did you?**_

 _ **-The long awaited meeting of Nora. Good enough for you?**_

 _ **-Iron table!**_

 _ **-Yes I'm making Ritsu a body, no it won't come for a long time, have to get the parts and equipment.**_

 _ **Frequent question, when I said Remnant's mythologie, I meant it as myths and legends, not specifically religions.**_

 ** _Matt corner: They met her. And as for the team: Muhahahaha!_**

 ** _Review! Follow! Favorite! Find the Cthulhu shout-out!_**


	6. Unstable footing

He woke up falling, again, and understood exactly what was happening. The trinity was bored so they called him, again.

So he did the best thing to do, he turned toward the ground, processed the eight thousand feet separating him from the ground...

And started screaming like a little bitch.

"NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!"

As he started regenerating from the grey puddle he had become at the bottom of the canyon, the Companion flipped the bird to the Mind.

* * *

Sapphire blinked despite the bloodlust rolling in waves along his skin, he could have sworn he'd just seen something fall from the sky.

But he had better things to do, so he focused his attention back to his surroundings. The headmaster had told the new students to be on this cliff at ten in the morning, two hours from now, to take part in the initiation.

"Ritsu, can you tell me what those are?" He pointed at the metal pads on the ground.

"I'd need to have a closer look at it, but it looks like a mechanically triggered launchpad."

He bent down on his knee and brought her closer to the contraption.

"Okay," She said. "It's old, but functional. Looking at the spring, the place of the brake and taking into account the lower gravity due to Remnant's size, I would say this one should project a man of middle weight at about three hundred feet above the launch point, itself placed about seven hundred feet above the landing zone. Depending on the initial speed given during the launch, a normal human would land... Either dead or extremely dead."

He looked at her incredulously. "How are we supposed to survive?" He sincerely doubted Aura could endure a hit like that.

"As I said, gravity seems to be lesser here than on earth. By using the foliage to lose speed and redirect the force of the fall with a good landing, it should be possible for someone with a strong enough Aura to survive, but..." She bit her lips as she looked at him.

He winced. While he had enough knowledge of landing to be considered one of the top twenty seven Parkour practitioner on earth outside of professionals, his classmates occupying the rest of it after _extensive_ training from Karasuma-sensei, his Aura control was fundamentally flawed: while a few experiments yesterday evening had helped him to clumsily handle its healing properties and get a few more scales, he couldn't put on the armor effect despite his many attempts and he highly doubted he could heal death. But maybe...

He pulled out one of Kutakeda Tsuki and hit the blade against the top of the cliff's face. It sank with some efforts. Mmh... Not quite enough resistance.

"The academy is covered by camera feed. Do you think there are some in the forest?" He asked Ritsu.

She materialized a shelf, a pen and some paper. "Camera feed infiltrated, I will have to reinforce the firewalls: the security is awful. Alright, there are a few blind spots, but I think I can make a map if I have a little time."

"Does the sun's cycle correspond to earth's?"

A rudimentary sketch of the planet appeared above her head. "Almost, the ecliptic plane is slightly more contrasted with the planet's rotation axis, but the impact on the cardinal situation is negligible."

Good, he could still use the sun to navigate.

"What about the flora?" He needed to know how to navigate the forest without a visual on the sky.

"Almost entirely different from earth's, according to various botanic essays, the emerald forest vegetation is mostly composed of a single type of tree possessing an extremely efficient photosynthesis system allowing them to stay green all year round by using the bark to support the leaf's normal effect. Due to the danger moss represent if it were to block even part of the trunk, the bark also secretes a toxin killing it before it can adhere to it. Don't worry though, several gallons of pure toxin would be needed to even give a rash to a human."

So no moss to help him find his way without the sky, that would be a problem.

"Ooh!" Ritsu suddenly cooed. "Now that's something interesting."

A shiver ran down Sapphire's spine. The last time Ritsu had cooed like that was when she had 'accidentally' hacked inside the NASA's experimental data-banks last month. The quantity of mad science she, Okuda, Itona, Takebayashi and Karma had done in the following week had been... Disturbing was too light a word.

He almost dreaded to ask. "Something caught your interest?"

"I found the security network!" She sang and he gulped. "Oh, I'm going to have so much fun with it later!"

Why him? "Can we... Can we please go back to our preparations?"

"Right! Map completed. I'll stay connected to the camera network and keep you updated on the others during the initiation proper. Heavy resistance is to be expected from the local wildlife. Course recommended..." She smiled evilly. "No mercy."

He blinked. "Why are you smiling?"

"That's the first time you'll stop holding back from killing your opponent. That's something everybody wanted to see!"

His eyes went blank. "What?"

* * *

The ensuing two hours were spent working on studying the general layout of the forest with the map and pictures had provided, memorizing the place of various landmarks, like the various ruins dotting the forest, and identifying potentials objective depending of the parameters of the mission. Search and destroy would probably focus on packs of grimms or the few giants concealed in the forest. A retrieval mission would rather focus on one of the ruins, probably one of the big temples. And a battle royal between the prospective students would be brutal.

Slowly, the other huntsmen hopeful started to gather around, giving them a large berth at the feeling of sheer _danger_ he exuded.

The headmaster and professor Goodwitch came in when about two thirds of those had found their way into small clusters of two or three and asked them to line on the metal plates on the ground.

Once every launchpad was occupied, Glynda and Ozpin exposed the quite simple parameters of the mission itself: a retrieval mission. In other words: get something, come back alive, partner up with the first person you meet, suck it up and move on.

"Are there any questions?"

"Yeah,uh-" Jaune tried to say, only to be interrupted by Sapphire at his right.

"Beginning of the operation?"

"Now."

Sapphire exploded into movement, ran to the edge of the cliff, took out a knife and stabbed it in the rock before using it to slide down. A few jaws dropped to the ground as everybody processed what just happened. Then people started to be launched.

The headmaster smiled.

* * *

Sapphire let go of the cliff with a roll to avoid breaking his leg and started to run toward the North. To be launched without being able to protect himself with Aura would have undoubtedly resulted in his death when he landed. So he looked outside the box and took another path down, by using the unnatural sharpness of Kudaketa Tsuki in conjunction with his skills at climbing, the descent of the cliff was a _much_ safer way down. He would lack the head start true, but he knew exactly where he started from, the two fact balanced each other in his opinion.

He took out his scroll, made eye contact with Ritsu, then replaced it, and her by extension, in the safe casing on his holster. Now they were officially partnered.

"Status report?" He asked. They had convened Ritsu would help him navigate if needed, but would mainly keep tab on their classmates through the cameras scattered through the forest. They needed to know their students more than he needed to avoid feral beasts.

"Everybody has touched ground safe and sound. Major shortcomings in the use of ammo to slow the fall in a few cases, but everyone is alright." She giggled. "But Jaune is nailed to a tree by a javelin."

He used a rock to jump over a stream. "How did that happen?"

"He seems to be a better seducer when he doesn't try."

He blinked before putting the information in a box and stashing it in the 'think about it later, preferably never' part of his mind. "Anything else?"

"Ruby is calling for Yang and should end up partnered to Weiss in three, two, one... First duo formed: Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee."

Mmh, interesting combination. From what he had observed of Weiss' general musculature and her weapon he could advance with almost certainty her fighting style revolved around thrusts and such movements focused on a single opponent, whereas Ruby's was centered on large sweeps better used to deal with small groups. Quite the good combination if played right.

He jumped over a fallen tree, his left hand on the bark to support himself, before stopping in a clearing and crouching. There were signs of recent animal passage. He put a finger in a bear's footprint... It had gone through the glade maximum two hours ago at normal pace, coming from the East before bifurcating toward the North-West. And judging by the quantity of tracks, it was not alone: five other distinct sets of smaller tracks. Bear were mostly solitary animals, so those were grimms.

He thought back on the rapid lecture Ritsu had given him based on studies about the various beasts of the forest. Bear meant Ursa, small groups of two to five individuals on average, probable team up of several groups in case of dangers and big hunts. Advantages: great strength, toughness and stamina with potential armoring in case of major individual. Weakness: slow, big blind spots, low intelligence.

His lips extended into a smile. Easy prey.

"Second duo formed: Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos." She chuckled. "Also known as team sword and shield."

He sighed, of course he didn't get the joke. But he couldn't make an assessment of the team without meeting that Pyrrha.

He stopped as he heard a rustle in the bushes ahead. Assessing his surroundings, he jumped from a rock and latched to a branch to get the height advantage. Jumping two other trees further, he saw a few black, vaguely wolfish beasts: Grimm.

Wolves meant Beowolves, packs wildly differing in size, highly sociable and often led by the more experienced individuals. Advantages: medium to high intelligence in stronger individuals, good speed, good strength, excellent tracking skills, higher survival instincts than other Grimms. Weaknesses: more vulnerable than most grimms.

Strongest and oldest individuals labeled as Alphas, avoid unprepared conflict at all costs.

Not as easy a prey as an Ursa, but Ritsu had informed him that no Alpha had been spotted, which put him against Betas at worst.

Sapphire swept his gaze over the clearing. Seven beasts: five normal Beowolves and two Betas, scattered over a smaller place than his class.

He inhaled once deeply and banished all fear and hesitation.

Bloodlust was an interesting concept with a name both incredibly to the point and misleading at once. While its most acknowledged use was in matters of life and death, bloodlust was not, in fact, a will to hurt. Another name for it would be _presence_ , the main form of the mind's influence over matter. Bloodlust was the proof of existence and sentience itself, always present, always exuded in barely existing amounts.

Many men and women believed a human being possessed only five senses, that was false: scientists had long since proven the existence of other senses and suggested others. Yet there was one only assassins and a few select individuals knew about, one overlooked by all except the restrained community dealing with death on a daily basis. The ability to sense bloodlust.

The presence of a being without bloodlust was like smoke: you could see its colors, you could smell its scent in your nose, you could taste its flavor on your tongue, you could feel it on your skin, sometimes you could hear its sounds. But you could never _grasp_ it.

As Sapphire landed on the ground, he became the smoke. In a fluid movement, he raised the knife in his left hand and sliced ever so gently the throat of the Beta next to him, letting it agonize as a shot from his pistol silenced the confused snarl of the other Beta by taking out its left eye and piercing through the brain.

He bent on his left knee when he caught one of the five beasts left angrily swiping at him from the corner of his eye, watching intently as the claw swept where his chest had been an eternity ago.

So slow, slower than Koro-sensei, slower than Karma, slower than Kayano, slower than Karasuma-sensei, than Terasaka, than Muramatsu, than Yoshida, than Nakamura... Too slow.

In a breath, he stabbed his would be attacker in its left lung, letting it drown in its own blood. He leveled his gun at the one rushing toward him and fired two bullets. One missed its target and hit in the arm, but the other perforated the heart.

Three left. He felt the small spike of bloodlust behind him as he prepared to gun down the one on his left and ducked jumped forward, avoiding the bit that would have broken his neck, but he overshot his jump by a small margin and the third beast managed to cut at his lower left jaw before the claw bounced off his protected shoulder and he rolled with the hit, managing to stab at one of the other beasts' calf, severing the muscles allowing it to stand.

A bullet ended its suffering as it hit the ground.

Two left. One of them rushed toward him and he stabbed it in the throat.

The last beast let out a terrified warble and bolted away, running away from a hopeless fight.

It froze in its tracks when he suddenly lessened the hold he exerted over his bloodlust. He calmly walked up to it and stared in is burning red eyes as it shied away from him, unholy terror bubbling in its gaze.

"You probably don't understand me." He softly stated before gently placing the muzzle of his pistol on its forehead. "But thank you." He shot, watching as the lifeless body faded into black smoke that started to curl up around him.

"Nagisa?" Ritsu asked.

"Yes?" He softly answered.

"Why did you thank it?"

He gave her a small smile, half happy and half sad that reached his eyes, through the camera he had spotted in a corner of the clearing. "It just felt right."

Yes, it did. It did because he actually was thankful. In the last few days he had only been running away: Sapphire was just a façade to lie to himself and hide from what had happened, and without that instant of pure lucidity as he went for the kill he would have kept trying to hide behind it as long as he could. Without that clarity, he would have kept running away. He was Nagisa, his teacher was dead, his friends and family were far away from him, he was a born assassin who dreamed to be a teacher.

He took to the trees and resumed his run toward the objective, but didn't stop thinking. In the last few days, he had understood things would not be the same from now on. He couldn't be Shiota Nagisa anymore, he wasn't naïve enough to believe that. Yet he could not escape his past and he honestly didn't want to. And if he had to be honest, he thought he had known it even as he tried to convince himself he could.

He hadn't cut his hair and neither had he replaced the name that counted. The realization drew a humorless laugh from him. Even when he tried to run away, he had clung to his promise to his mother and the familiarity of his name. Shiota had never held as much importance as most people gave to their surname in the society he grew in. But Nagisa had been the name his friends had used, the name his mentors had used, it was _his_ name and its place was behind his surname.

He was losing it. He knew who he was, now he was _certain_ of who he was, he couldn't escape it anymore. And he didn't know if he could live with it without going mad in the process. He was an assassin, a killer. He was fallible, a teacher couldn't be fallible, he just couldn't. Koro-sensei was good at everything he did, Karasuma-sensei was the immovable rock of sanity in a class of crazies and even Bitch-sensei had never failed to support them in her own unique way.

But Koro-sensei was dead, Karasuma-sensei had been powerless against the government and Bitch-sensei had turned against them once.

He didn't realize he had stopped as his worldview slowly crumbled around him, he didn't notice when his control on his bloodlust slipped and it blanketed the forest, he didn't feel the answering bloodlust of the beasts attracted by it.

He didn't even feel it when his hand coiled around his rifle's handle and he mechanically mowed down the first line of assailants under a rain of bullets, nor when he unconsciously weaved between savage and clumsy strikes, when he cut a swathe through the swarm of monsters.

He didn't feel anything as he unknowingly exterminated enough monsters to obscure the sky behind the ashes.

* * *

Glinda's scroll almost slipped from her hands.

She had taken care to keep an eye on the otherworldly duo since the trial started. She didn't have anything against them, far from it, in fact: she actually liked the professionalism they displayed, but she had seen enough expatriates huntsmen causing accidents in the unfamiliar cultures nurtured by the isolation between settlements. Another world entirely may be cause for a culture clash great enough to pass the point of no return.

Until now, her fears had barely been justified, they seemed willing enough to raise a hand on humans for it to be suspicious in the common front against the Grimm, but nothing too radical, so she had relaxed a little.

She had taken the time to analyze the boy's capabilities in order to speculate a good fighting partner for her class. His strength was laughable, respectable civilian level, but mediocre compared to even the weakest of Aura adepts and if his course of actions at the beginning of the trial was anything to go by, his innate defenses were just as low. But despite being the weakest potential student she had ever seen, he was _fast_ , fast enough that she had a hard time following his movements, precise enough to make each strike deadly and impressively smart.

And then she had seen him break down, had seen his eyes start to glow turquoise and his hair flutter like wings before a wave of unnatural fear had swept over her like a physical force.

Ozpin placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Impressive." He noted, probably more to himself than her. "You will get used to it." He gently reassured her.

She took the time to readjust her glasses before taking a look at how the other students hopeful had taken to the oppressive event.

Most of them seemed to have stopped cold with the few exceptions of miss Xiao Long and miss Rose. Previous exposure, maybe?

Most of the other reactions were fairly simple: the teens just went on their way with a little more caution after a minute or so.

She frowned at mister Arc's intriguing lack of anxiety. If anything, the boy should have had it worse than anybody else if his previous performance was anything to go by.

She turned back her attention to mister Sapphire, he obviously was more comfortable with using that name as a surname.

It was impressive, really. For all he was not a classical powerhouse, the boy was extremely efficient: rather than going on the offensive, he simply responded to the attacks against him, making use of admittedly better reflexes than even her own to methodically cut down the herd of creatures of Grimm one at a time. An efficient tactic against feral beasts and she suspected it would be even better against predictable humans.

If anything, she could probably place him against any of the other students and expect him to win every time until they started to adapt specifically to counter him.

Now if only she could understand why so many Grimm were attracted to him.

* * *

Nagisa emerged from the cloud of black ashes clutching his ribs. As much as he'd known the hit from that ursa was coming, he'd been stopped from dodging by two charging beowolves and he'd had to make a choice between the blunt paws and sharp claws on what would touch him.

He'd chosen to take the stronger blow and, despite jumping just enough to lessen the blow, had been sent flying over a few yards under the shock, but his jacket had dampened the chock whereas the claw might have cut through the fabric and between the strips of the protective frame.

The result was a cracked rib whereas he'd probably have gotten an open wound likely to get infected by the residual dirt on the grimms' claws. After that, the battle had been a simple matter of dodge, counter, kill, rinse and repeat.

He'd lost count, but it didn't matter: he was alive, they were dead, end of the story.

"Ritsu, where am I?"

"A mile to the South-South-East of the objective. One group is currently there. Hey, it's Blake and Yang!"

He smiled, he didn't have time to doubt, there was something much more important to do, peoples much more important than himself to care for. After all, a teacher always came after the students.

He sprinted.

* * *

 _ **So... Hey. Short chapter, I know. It's more than a bit disappointing after so long, I know.**_

 _ **Sorry. Just... Sorry, I've had several nervous breakdowns since the last chapter that were worse than those I normally have. I am not the most stable of individuals on the emotional and mental plane and the mental conflict of Nagisa hit a lot closer to home than I expected.**_

 _ **I've written over a hundred thousand words in various projects that have either been deleted since or will probably remain in the limbo of my hard-drive and this chapter was particularly hard to do, I think I've entirely rewritten it over a dozen times and I'm still not satisfied.**_

 _ **To be clear, everything in this chapter was planned since the beginning of the story, the name part was always meant to end quick so as to show how affected Nagisa is, the bloodlust/grimm interaction was the origin of the idea for this story and the smaller planet for lesser gravity is the real reason. The one I gave in chapter one was a joke that was supposed to get revealed after a few weeks when I reached this chapter... Yeah, I'm not sure why I ever though I could belt out the chapters fast enough to have it be funny.**_

 _ **Just... Sorry guys, I'll try to do better for the next one.**_


	7. The Sapphire Snake still lives

So, first thing first, I apologise, but this is not a new chapter.

I write this in answer to a review that postulated this story was dead. Now as a few of you know, I normally answer those directly, but this was a guest review and I also realise not everyone who might still have interest in this story would send a message asking what's going on.

So let me say that this story isn't dead and explain the long radio silence on my part.

I had a big breakdown last year, one that ended up with me drifting off just about everything in my life, including writing. By the time I started pulling my head together, I'll admit this story was very low on my list of urgent stuff to fix in my life and the writing groove still hadn't come back.

It took months for a few friends to convince me that I shouldn't give up on posting what I considered to be messes of words that shouldn't be inflicted on anyone. And, surprise, people actually liked my new story and the more involved system of spacebattles helped me gain some confidence in my stuff thanks to interaction with the readers.

And thus I came back to Sapphire Snake, full of determination and motivation and was faced with two things.

First, all the further writing I had on it, including my objective chart, dated from before I migrated to Google Docs and thus had been deleted by FFnet three months into my drifting. I'll admit it left me quite salty.

Second, I started to write this story when I was sixteen and it shows. Compared to my current standards of quality and the fantastic work my new beta readers do to help me, Sapphire Snake is quite simply a let down in term of execution.

Still, I still love to write this story, I still love the readers behind the usernames and I want to do justice by both. So I'm going to ask if you guys can give me a little more patience that I don't deserve while I try to retread old ground and fix the flaws of this story.

And, if you feel like giving me a hand, then don't hesitate to mercilessly point out the flaws you see in this story, preferably with an account so I can discuss them with you, but I won't begrudge guest reviews.

Once again, sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for all the support I've gotten up to now. I love you guys and I love the adventure we're on.


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